Sony wants to turn its gaming division into its entertainment hub

Faced with deep losses in its electronics business that caused its stock to plunge Thursday, Sony Corp. is stepping up efforts to turn its better-performing game division into a hub for entertainment services. Andrew House, chief executive of the game unit, said in an interview Thursday that his unit was talking with a range of potential content partners for a planned Internet television service that Sony intends to introduce in the U.S. by the end of the year. Sony last week disclosed details of one such agreement with Viacom Inc.,VIAB +0.51% under which it will be able to stream more than 20 channels, including MTV and Nickelodeon. Mr. House said Sony also intended to develop a service to stream videogames onto smartphones, tablets and other devices from a range of manufacturers other than Sony. “A streaming-based approach needs to have a very wide funnel of devices, and that inherently means a broad- and manufacturer-agnostic approach,” said Mr. House, who was attending the Tokyo Game Show in this Tokyo suburb. Since its introduction in November last year, Sony’s $399 PlayStation 4 console is selling at the fastest pace on record for any Sony game console. After nine months, it sold 10 million units, far ahead of rivals from Microsoft Corp. and Nintendo Co.