Sony Computer Entertainment Asia yesterday announced that a Taiwanese vendor will partly develop a game for its popular PlayStation 3 (PS3).
Sony joined hands with software developer Actainment Co (
"The game is still under development and we expect gamers will see it sometime this summer," said Tetsuhiko Yasuda, the managing director of Sony Computer Entertainment Asia, at a press conference in Taipei yesterday.
PHOTO: CNA
He made the remarks at a signing ceremony with Actainment as well as Japan's Ongakukan Co, the main developer of the game.
Sony said the new game will be launched simultaneously in Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore.
"We may talk to other Taiwanese developers for future collaborations on PS3, but no discussions are currently underway," Yasuda said.
"Railfan" offers players a train operating simulation enhanced by the actual scenery of the trip captured by high-definition cameras.
There is also information on major tourist destinations as you pass them.
Ongakukan, which has produced over 30 simulated games modeled on Japanese and US high speed trains, will provide the technology for the game, while Actainment will assist in creating the user interface and the trains.
"Taiwanese developers have unique content, but they are still struggling to hit the world stage," said Malo Haung (
Through collaboration with Japanese firms, the Actainment staff learned game development as well as technological skills.
While only one local vendor has been asked to develop a PS3 game, more than a dozen Taiwanese game developers have been asked by Microsoft Corp to create games for the Xbox 360.
Some of the companies include XPEC Entertainment Inc (樂陞科技), FunTown (和信超媒體戲谷), Soft-World International Corp (智冠科技) and Softstar Entertainment Inc (大宇資訊).
Nvidia Corp’s demand for advanced packaging from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) remains strong though the kind of technology it needs is changing, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) said yesterday, after he was asked whether the company was cutting orders. Nvidia’s most advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chip, Blackwell, consists of multiple chips glued together using a complex chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) advanced packaging technology offered by TSMC, Nvidia’s main contract chipmaker. “As we move into Blackwell, we will use largely CoWoS-L. Of course, we’re still manufacturing Hopper, and Hopper will use CowoS-S. We will also transition the CoWoS-S capacity to CoWos-L,” Huang said
Nvidia Corp CEO Jensen Huang (黃仁勳) is expected to miss the inauguration of US president-elect Donald Trump on Monday, bucking a trend among high-profile US technology leaders. Huang is visiting East Asia this week, as he typically does around the time of the Lunar New Year, a person familiar with the situation said. He has never previously attended a US presidential inauguration, said the person, who asked not to be identified, because the plans have not been announced. That makes Nvidia an exception among the most valuable technology companies, most of which are sending cofounders or CEOs to the event. That includes
INDUSTRY LEADER: TSMC aims to continue outperforming the industry’s growth and makes 2025 another strong growth year, chairman and CEO C.C. Wei says Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), a major chip supplier to Nvidia Corp and Apple Inc, yesterday said it aims to grow revenue by about 25 percent this year, driven by robust demand for artificial intelligence (AI) chips. That means TSMC would continue to outpace the foundry industry’s 10 percent annual growth this year based on the chipmaker’s estimate. The chipmaker expects revenue from AI-related chips to double this year, extending a three-fold increase last year. The growth would quicken over the next five years at a compound annual growth rate of 45 percent, fueled by strong demand for the high-performance computing
TARIFF TRADE-OFF: Machinery exports to China dropped after Beijing ended its tariff reductions in June, while potential new tariffs fueled ‘front-loaded’ orders to the US The nation’s machinery exports to the US amounted to US$7.19 billion last year, surpassing the US$6.86 billion to China to become the largest export destination for the local machinery industry, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI, 台灣機械公會) said in a report on Jan. 10. It came as some manufacturers brought forward or “front-loaded” US-bound shipments as required by customers ahead of potential tariffs imposed by the new US administration, the association said. During his campaign, US president-elect Donald Trump threatened tariffs of as high as 60 percent on Chinese goods and 10 percent to 20 percent on imports from other countries.