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Sony to Make CDs With Text, Video Games

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

As part of its continuing expansion into software, Sony Corp. has announced the formation of Sony Electronic Publishing, a division devoted to video and computer technologies.

The new company will produce and distribute products ranging from video games to computerized texts on compact disc. Characters owned by Sony could even pop up in comic books.

Sony Electronic Publishing will be headquartered in New York. Company President Olaf Olafsson said his division will work closely with Sony’s two other software divisions, Columbia Pictures Entertainment Co. and Sony Music, formerly known as CBS Records.

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One of the company’s first moves will be licensing characters from upcoming films such as “Hook,” based on the Peter Pan legend, for use in video games. Sources say the Tokyo-based electronics giant has already entered into an agreement with a major video game manufacturer.

In an effort to grab a chunk of the video game business, which accounted for nearly $5 billion in retail sales last year, Sony will also work to develop new video game technologies.

“This is an opportunity for Sony to enhance the experience and make it more interesting for the consumer,” Olafsson said. “In the future you will be able to incorporate clips from movies into video games. The games will be on CD-ROM (compact discs containing text and graphics). They will have full CD audio on them, too.”

Sony also plans to move into electronic publishing. Plans call for manufacturing computerized discs containing entire encyclopedias, magazines and other printed matter.

In addition, Sony will produce CD-ROM discs that provide text to go along with the music of its major recording artists, Olafsson added.

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