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| 7Seas Tech enters retail gaming |
| K Rajani Kanth / Chennai/ Hyderabad Apr 11, 2009, 00:44 IST |
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Partners distribution firm Comprint to launch six game CD packs shortly.
7Seas Technologies Limited, a Hyderabad-based independent game development company, is entering the over Rs 300-crore Indian retail gaming market, which is witnessing a steady growth of 30 per cent year-on-year.
“We have collaborated with city-based Comprint to mark our entry into the retail gaming space, wherein 7Seas will provide the content while Comprint will have the exclusive rights to publish and retail our games in the Indian market,” L Maruti Sanker, managing director of 7Seas Technologies, told Business Standard.
7Seas will be launching six packs of CDs, each comprising 20 IP-based computer casual game titles across action, sports, kids, fun, puzzle and cricket genres next week. These packs will be available at Comprint’s network of 600 large format retail stores including Landmark, Odyssey, Music World, Big Bazaar and Planet M across the country.
“The online games segment is still witnessing slower adoption in India due to people’s reservation to spend on Internet to play games. The idea behind taking the retail route is to provide high-end casual games that suit the normal household computers through offline mode and attract more gamers from semi-urban and rural areas that lack the last mile connectivity,” Sanker said.
7Seas is the third game development firm from India to enter the retail gaming space, with the other two being the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group’s Zapak Digital Entertainment Limited and FXLabs Studios.
While Zapak had launched game CDs with about 47 titles in August 2008 with plans to take the number to 150 in phases by this year end, FXLabs partnered UK-based distributor Eros International Plc to launch the country’s first 3D PC action game based on the Bollywood runaway hit Ghajini in January 2009.
Sanker said the company was planning to test waters in the international retail gaming market as well and towards this had tied up with Candella Systems Limited, a UK-based developer and publisher of videogames for the PC, consoles and handhelds, for retailing its multi-genre PC racing game ‘Kraze’ globally.
According to a recent report by the US-based Entertainment Software Association, over 400 million computer and video games (console) games were sold globally in 2008. In the US, about 65 per cent of the American households play computer or video games.
“We have been working on Kraze for over two years, which will have 13 different vehicles, eight different locations around the world from perilous mountain cliffs to the shimmering sands of a mirage-strewn desert, off-road, rally, F1 and street race modes, vehicle customisation, slow motion action replays and recording of races. Work on developing Kraze in about 14 international languages including Russian, French, Italian, English and Chinese is currently under way, and the game will be launched globally by July this year,” he said.
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