Sony progress India based development* Spinoff

[patsu]

Another Sony move: http://www.dnaindia.com/report.asp?newsid=1181615

Atindriya Bose, country manager, Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE), said the company, which is a subsidiary of Sony Corp, would boost its gaming production business in India to leverage on the cost benefits that the country offers.

Game development entails big investments — for an 18-month project, the cost could be around $3-5 million for PlayStation II (PSII) and $20-30 million for PlayStation III (PSIII) consoles. Thus, the company has decided to transfer technology for its games from its London studio to India and also impart training to local developers till they have mastered the cost-optimisation tricks.

When did they start the India studio ?

It is a long process. There are many hidden challenges. The outcome depends on how tightly Sony manages the projects. I have witnessed and also participated in several projects with mixed results there.

In any case, the more talent they can gloom, the better.

EDIT: I think some of the software delays may persist for some time, if they are still building out the teams in India.

 

[Arwin]

They should have doubled up for a while, have a team in India as well as in London, until it was proven that India is successful. Hopefully no jobs were lost to U.K. coders, because they are generally ace. That said, London is the most ridiculously expensive place to run a business from, so I would have picked a different location in the U.K. anyway.

 

[patsu]

@patsu: they should have doubled up for a while, have a team in India as well as in London, until it was proven that India is successful. Hopefully no jobs were lost to U.K. coders, because they are generally ace. That said, London is the most ridiculously expensive place to run a business from, so I would have picked a different location in the U.K. anyway.

I am not worried about the existing aces. Sony will definitely keep them. The teams will need to work together in the same physical location for some time though. That's the best way.

All these India talk is making me hungry (Tandoori chicken, here I come ~~~)

EDIT: I just remember the team in India can also focus on initial Playstation Home space development and PSP software. This should lighten the load on the existing core teams.