Next Wave to add 50 IP games next year

Next Wave to add 50 IP games next year

Next Wave Multimedia, a Chennai-based provider of digital media, technology, communication and entertainment solutions to OEMs (original equipment manufacturers) like BlackBerry and Nokia, is planning to add 50 more casual online games to its current portfolio of 100 IP (intellectual property) games in the next one year.

Speaking to Business Standard at the ongoing 'AppFest' in Hyderabad on Thursday, PR Rajendran, director, Next Wave, said each of the proposed games, across genres, would entail an investment of between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh.

“These games will help us in ad-monetisation. We also plan to develop 1-2 bigger multi-player games, each with an investment of between Rs 15 lakh and Rs 1 crore, every year, starting this year," he said.

The 10-year-old, privately-held company, which transformed itself from IT services to being a products development firm over the years, has seen close to 46 million downloads on its portal in the last two years, and expects this to touch 50 million by the end of this month.

Rajendran said the company was also focusing on self-publishing tools (SPTs), and had recently launched the mobile and tablet version of its first comic SPT.

While the SPT is available for iPad and Android-based devices, the company plans to make it available for BlackBerry 10, Research in Motion (RIM)'s soon-to-be-launched propriety operating system, and Nokia Lumia by the end of January next year.

Next Wave claims the mobile version of its comic SPT has the latest library (close to 5,000) of ClipArts.

"There is a lot of requirement gap in SPTs. We will be launching a new set of SPTS, targeting at professional like bloggers and media executives, and schools in the US, by the end of February," Rajendran said.