Yasuda: Sony Planning PS3 Downloadable Games In Asia

A partial translation of an interview conducted by Japanese website Game Watch with Sony Computer Entertainment Asia’s Tetsuhiko Yasuda suggests that Sony is planning to offer unspecified PlayStation 3 games for online download in South Korea and elsewhere in Asia, largely due to piracy-related issues prevalent on the Asian market. According to the article, Yasuda is quoted as saying that the 2006 plan of SCE Asia is to construct a PlayStation 3 infrastructure on which software makers can distribute software digitally. This ties in with a recent announcement that Sony Computer Entertainment Japan has joined up with the Korea IT Industry Promotion Agency (whose U.S. divisions are known as iPark), and will introduce WA! PS3 Online, a joint venture to help Korean game developers make online titles for the PlayStation 3. That report explained that the selected developers will get prototype funding from KIPA, and additional post-prototype funding from SCEJ, as well as free technical support and PlayStation 3 development kit rentals. Further online reports have indicated that digital downloads of game material, as currently available for the Xbox 360, should be relatively simple with the PlayStation 3, though details of the PS3's online service are still closely veiled. Commenting on other aspects of the console’s launch the price of the machine is described as “a bit high (but not outrageously so) for Asian countries". A simultaneous launch across Asia is apparently being considered by Sony, but will presumably depend on stock levels, and no specific release date has yet been given for the console.