Playing games

India can talk about at least one Chinese "takeover" with pride, especially, since it involves China's leading international icon Bruce Lee.

Vishal Gondal, promoter and CEO of indiagames, a mobile software company, is ready to announce the acquisition of rights to produce content and gaming based on Bruce Lee, the super hero and, perhaps, China's biggest export to Hollywood.

The gaming rights also include exclusive marketing of this content in the wireless domain, globally. The rights have been acquired through an arrangement with Fox Studios' Wireless Entertainment Group, USA.

The global rights for Bruce Lee will see indiagames producing and selling games, ring tones, screen-savers and images associated with the kung fu legend in nine countries. The company has a tie-up with 60 mobile operators across the world.

To be sure, Bruce Lee is not the only brand that Gondal has bagged. Among other brands, it has the exclusive world wireless rights to Fox properties such as the television character Buffy and Fox's film The Day After Tomorrow, to be released on May 28.

Buffy is a teenage girl who knows martial arts and kills vampires. "She is a sensation and has proved to be a hugely successful television character and game franchise," says Gondal.

"With its development and worldwide distribution strengths, indiagames is best suited to get this cult brand to mobile phones across the world," he feels.

Entertainment industry insiders claim that the acquisition of a single Hollywood property costs indiagames anything up to $800,000. But Gondal, all of 27, knows that it is a worthwhile investment.

Here is how he calculates: a million downloads per month per game are expected to happen in the first six months of the game being released.

"And this time round, even the Airtel and Hutch subscribers will be able to download the games and play them with the rest of the world," he says.

In the near future, Gondal's company is likely to win the rights (with Fox) for films like The Mummy, the hit TV cop drama NYPD blues and Alien vs Predator, the American film which is scheduled for release in August.

According to Gondal, who tried his hand at developing games based on Sanjay Dutt's film, Munnabhai MBBS, it makes far more sense to buy a Hollywood property.

"The cost of developing a game remains the same. It is just that the acceptability of Spiderman, the first property we bought last year, is way more than compared to, say, a Bollywood flick," he says.

JP Morgan recently described the global mobile gaming business as "the world's largest addressable market", and Frost and Sullivan expect the industry to touch $ 9.3 billion by 2008.

Currently, the gaming industry is estimated to be $2 billion and Gondal wants indiagames to be among the leaders in this sector.

Gondal expects his company to clock a turnover of $ 7 million this year. Last year, indiagames generated a revenue of $ 3 million.