Sony Will Enter Video Game Field : Multimedia: Consumer electronics giant will tap into its film and music properties to create a high-performance, CD-ROM-based system.

Sony Corp., the Japanese consumer electronics giant that has been conspicuously absent from the fast-growing video game industry, said Wednesday that it will introduce a new high-performance game system for sale in the United States in 1995. The long-expected move reflects the growing importance of the lucrative video game market--which makes up the bulk of the “multimedia industry”--whose $6 billion in annual revenue now exceeds the film industry’s U.S. box office receipts.

While Sony’s fledgling electronic publishing division has been developing games for the Sega and Nintendo systems for more than a year, the company is virtually the only important consumer electronics manufacturer not yet making game systems.

“They have a large position in the home entertainment electronics market, and one of the driving forces in that market is the higher-capability games,” said Robert Herwick, a technology analyst at the San Francisco investment firm Hambrecht & Quist. “To defend their position, they had to get into games.”

Sony’s extensive distribution network and its ability to draw on its music and film properties to develop titles should be advantages in the video game business. But the company faces an uphill battle against Sega and Nintendo, who together dominate the cartridge-based video game market.

The Sony machine will use sophisticated 32-bit technology and play CD-ROM-based software, whose capacity to store and manipulate huge amounts of video, graphics and text has led to a new generation of intense competition--and several new competitors--in the video game industry.

Nintendo said in August that it is teaming with Silicon Graphics Inc. to develop an advanced 64-bit platform for CD-ROMs, and Sega, which already has a 16-bit CD-based system, is expected to come out with a new and improved version soon.

Philips Electronics recently introduced a new version of its CD-I machine, which can play movies and audio CDs as well as interactive software. And IBM is manufacturing a 64-bit game system for Atari, which will be cartridge-based at first but eventually switch to CD-ROM.

Bits are pieces of information. The more bits a machine can process at once, the better the imagery and the greater the functionality.

Sony’s system will also square off against Redwood City, Calif.-based 3DO, backed by Sony’s consumer electronics rival Matsushita and Matsushita’s MCA/Universal entertainment unit. Matsushita is manufacturing the 3DO machines, which began appearing in stores this month under the Panasonic name.

Analysts said Sony’s strong brand name and distribution capability could give it greater credibility than 3DO, which has said it hopes to become a new consumer electronics standard. But so far the Sony product is still “vaporware,” with no set price or release date.

In a press release, the company said it will “work toward marketing the new home-use game system domestically by the end of 1994 and overseas within 1995, priced competitively.”

Ultimately, Sony’s success will hinge on its ability to enlist software developers and turn its entertainment properties into hit games. While the company has not yet lined up any license agreements, its electronic publishing unit has been working to forge closer ties with the studio.