What Ever Happened to Sony and Namco’s Cellius Group?

Way back in January 2007, Sony Computer Entertainment and Namco Bandai came together to form a group of developers to make games just for PlayStation 3. Former Chairman and chief executive officer of Sony Computer Entertainment and “father of PlayStation”, Ken Kutagari, was appointed as chairman of this new development group, known as Cellius. Namco Bandai owns 51% of Cellius, while Sony Computer Entertainment owns 49%.

The main focus at Cellius is to fully utilize the PlayStation 3’s cell processor, thus the name. Sony hoped the new developer would hope regain the $1.65 billion they lost developing the cell chip.

In March 2007, scans appeared on the net of three games said to be in development at Cellius. Brave Arms was said to be a third-person action game taking play like the Ninja Gaiden games. Chain Limit was said to be a James Bond-type adventure game. Second Season 01 was said to be a first-person drama and sci-fi action game. However, none were officially confirmed by actual company. There were even rumors that the scans were fake.

In January 2008, a glimmer of hope shone down upon us as an official website for the developer Cellius appeared on the net, even sporting a logo (seen and tweaked above) with a description saying “Cellius is a joint venture by Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. and Namco Bandai Corporation for the purpose of creation of new Entertainment.” An address for the developer is even provided, whom are located in Shibuya, Tokyo.

However, as over a year went by fans hoping to see light in the company, but as of yet never did. Whether or not they are developing Brave Arms and the other two titles is not what matters to me. What I want to know is what ever happened to Cellius; the group that was supposed to fully utilize that cell engine?

Perhaps Cellius is dead, perhaps they’re alive and kicking working on some secret project right now. All I know is they better come out of hiding soon, and I mean E3 soon.