Reliance Info signs up Van Damme for promote two games, which will be launched to coincide with the release of Van Damme’s movies later this year.
HYDERABAD/MUMBAI: Reliance Infocomm is going glocal. Paradox Studios, the digital gaming content arm of Reliance Infocomm, has signed up Van Damme, the Belgium-born Hollywood action star, to promote at least two mobile games developed by it.
It is also developing mobile games in regional languages to capture the regional market.
The company has already launched three mobile games in Hindi, and is planning to launch games in Gujarati, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Marathi and a few other languages.
Van Damme will promote Kick Boxing and Van Dammage, games based on his style of kick boxing, which was developed by Paradox’s 4-member team, with inputs from the actor’s personal instructor.
The games will be launched to coincide with the release of Van Damme’s movies later this year. Second in Command and Hard Crops, two movies that have been completed by Van Damme, are slated for release in 2006.
Apart from mobile operators in India, Paradox is also negotiating with others in the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the US. Hutch in Thailand, where kick boxing is popular, is likely to pick up the games.
This is the first time an international action star has been signed up by an Indian company on a long-term contract, lasting nearly two and a half years to promote mobile games. Van Damme gets an upfront guarantee fee, apart from revenue share, Ninad Chayya, vice-president, operations and production, told DNA.
Paradox is also on the verge of signing up two leading Bollywood stars and one action hero from the South on multiple year deals that will include marketing and game promotion, he said. But he refused to divulge the names, pending finalisation of the agreements.
The company is also looking to sign up other international stars including cricketing personalities. It has already released the BMX Extreme game, for which it has roped in an international BMX stunt team to promote it.
The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) has estimated the Indian mobile gaming market to grow at a whopping CAGR of 89.1% to touch $205 million in 2009 from $16 million in 2005. The market for gaming development in general is expected to touch $300 million in 2009 from an estimated $30 million in 2005.
According to industry estimates, almost 8-9 million games are downloaded every year in India. Games based on cricket, Bollywood and Hollywood movies and racing are the most popular downloads. The charges range between Rs 15 to Rs 150 per game.
The market for mobile game development is expected to grow by more than 12 times by 2009. However, the scarcity of skilled personnel will continue to hamper the growth of the industry. Carom, Chhoomantar and Dhanurdhari are the three Hindi games Reliance already have.
Talking to DNA, Mahesh Prasad, president, Application Solution Group, Reliance Infocomm, said, “By introducing Hindi language games and a few other regional language games, we expect the demand for local language content on mobile to grow at a staggering rate and Reliance will lead the charge to further boost this growing segment.”
The market for game development in India was estimated at $30 million in 2005. It is expected to witness a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 77.8%, reaching $300 million by 2009.
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