Sony Unit to Make Video Games for Sega Machines

Sony Electronic Publishing and Sega of America announced Wednesday that Sony will produce video games for Sega’s hot-selling line of video game machines.

The agreement, which was expected, illustrates the divergent interests of Sony Electronic Publishing--formed last year to develop software for consumer electronics devices--and parent Sony Corp.’s hardware divisions. Sony Corp. plans to introduce a video game machine next year called the Play Station, which will play video games developed for Sega’s archrival, Nintendo Ltd.

Olaf Olafsson, president of Sony Electronic Publishing, said the agreement with Sega involves software only and will have no effect on the planned Play Station. Sony Electronic Publishing will continue to develop both Nintendo and Sega games, but the Sony Play Station will not work with Sega video games.

Olafsson said his company wants to develop games for a variety of video game machines, a common strategy of software publishers. Sony Electronic Publishing will try to take advantage of the film and music properties owned by Sony Pictures and Sony Music in its game production efforts. For example, a game based on the Steven Spielberg movie “Hook” will soon be released in both Nintendo and Sega versions.