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Game developers are increasingly eyeing Bollywood production houses to create content. For instance, a recent entrant into the gaming world, FXLabs, a content developer for personal computers and console games, is in talks with at least five Bollywood production houses for creating movie-based games. By the end of the year, the company will release games based on Dhoom2.
FXLabs is simply a case in point. Hungama has launched more than 80 games based on Bollywood and Hollywood titles. And players such as Reliance Entertainment's Zapak have been roping in celebrities around whom games are being developed.
Industry experts say that Bollywood-based games on the PC and Internet, though just five per cent, are growing fast, while Bollywood games on mobiles is approximately 15-20 per cent of the total content generated.
However, industry players caution that India as a gaming market is yet to mature and bring in the big bucks. Neeraj Roy, managing director and CEO, Hungama, said, "We were the first to introduce multi-player PC games with Don in India. Now everyone is talking about online and mobile gaming. The entire PC-based gaming in India is just about $15-16 million (Rs 60-70 crore) whereas mobile games is Rs 65-80 crore (Rs 650-800 million) from the end user perspective."
Roy also feels that movie-based games inherently garner maximum hits or downloads due to their popularity and a natural affinity from the users. When it comes to games, Roy is bullish about the growth of console games. With biggies such as Microsoft and Sony getting serious about the Indian market, he believes it is just matter of time for the uptake of these games.
PC gaming is expected to witness a growth in value terms from Rs 25 crore (Rs 250 million) to Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) by 2008, according to a recent report by PricewaterouseCoopers and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry.
The report suggests that the console games market is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate of 75.2 per cent over the next four years, increasing its share in the total gaming market to 30 per cent. The report adds that the demand for online games is increasing due to a growth in Internet usage.
Rohit Sharma, chief operating officer, Zapak Digital Entertainment, says: "We are in talks with 3-4 big production houses and we are primarily looking at action flicks." Meanwhile, they have roped in Mallaika Arora, Bipasha Basu and Salman Khan to promote their games.
"The innovative thing about our approach is that the celebrity is involved in the development of the game right from the conceptual stage. We will be launching Salman Zone in the next few days. Games on Salman receive at least 40,000-50,000 page views per day," adds Sharma.
But right pricing is a crucial element to make online games popular. That is the focus area for FXLabs. The company is also clear that pricing will be key in gaining market shares.
Tony Garcia, CEO, FXLabs said, "Though we are yet to decide on the pricing for Dhoom2, it should range between $10-15 (Rs 420-630)."
Garcia is gung-ho about the Indian gaming scenario. "Today, India is the largest untapped market for gaming. I think the potential of PC and console gaming in India is very huge," he added.