MxMIndia

Tag: Jump Games

  • Manish Agarwal, CEO of Reliance Entertainment Digital, and speaks on gamification and a variety of issues around digital entertainment and gaming in particular

    Jaldi 5 with Manish Agarwal: Gamification is next big thing

    Reliance Entertainment Digital, the digital arm of Reliance Entertainment is a cluster of leading multi-brand consumer digital company in India. Today, the company’s business encompasses digital entertainment – that’s gaming, VOD and e-commerce across all prominent platforms such as online and mobile its portfolio comprises dynamic brands and companies like Zapak Digital Entertainment, which operates three verticals: Zapak Solutions, Zapak Online & WAP Portal and the newly christened Zapak Mobile (earlier known as Jump Games), Big Adda and BigFlicks Pvt Ltd. Cumulatively, the Reliance Digital business has over 20 million satisfied consumers across all digital platforms.

     

    MxMIndia interviewed Manish Agarwal, CEO of Reliance Entertainment Digital, and spoke to him on a variety of issues around digital entertainment and gaming in particular.

     

    01. In many ways the fact that the Reliance group had invested in Zapak in 2005 had indicated to the world that there is much potential in the gaming business. As you look back seven years, would you say, the investments have been worth it? Is there enough RoI?

    Reliance Group remains committed towards its belief that gaming would be a great driver for entertainment for millions of Indians in high-speed-always-connected-broadband era. The group invested in creating India’s first gaming brand and today Zapak is synonymous with gaming. Zapak had segmented market as casual gamers and hard-core gamers and had provided different offerings to both segments. Zapak is the largest casual gaming destination in India in terms of users as well as revenues. However, Zapak had expected the gaming to grow exponentially via MMORPGs among hard-core gamers as was (and is) the case in Korea, Japan and China and had invested heavily in building gaming cafes to enable hard-core gamers to become part of game cult existing in east Asian countries. However, owing to missing link of high speed always-connected-broadband infra in India, hard-core PC-based paid gaming culture has not taken off and Zapak had to re-caliberate its strategy and thinking that MMORPGs will drive the gaming in India. However, the brand name, learnings and highly skilled set of the ONLY team which has the experience of developing, distributing and monetizing casual as well as high-end games puts Zapak in an unique position to exploit exploding mobile gaming market not only in India but compete globally. The recent success of F1 2011, Real Steel, Ben 10 and ICC WT20 games in India and abroad give us confidence that Zapak would be one of the most successful company from India in gaming space worldwide.

     

    02. We are a country of over a billion people. Sale of digital devices is growing exponentially. Why do you think has the domestic consumption of gaming not grown much in India?

    If one looks at past growth of gaming culture and gaming business worldwide, it has either happened on consoles or on high-end PCs. Consoles and high-end PC would cost more than Rs 50k which is either beyond the purchasing power of Indian or falls in the space of “indulgence”. The high cost of the devices coupled with poor broadband and lack of good devices has resulted in the generation of 30-plus Indians being essentially of non-gamers. However, things are changing very rapidly with the proliferation of smarter hand held devices at an affordable price, generation of Indians between 3-25 years is busy in playing variety of games on their hand held devices.

     

    This explosion in lead by “snacky and snappy” nature of gaming, making it the best entertainment option for ‘timepass on the go’. 100 million mobile internet and with forecast of mobile internet users growing to 300 million by 2015 offer a great opportunity for players like Zapak to innovate and deliver good quality games to the Indians and also experiment with localization as there is a high probability of creating a scalable & profitable business model on mobile gaming in India.

     

    03. In terms of production of games for the overseas market, where is the growth coming from? And what are your projections?

    North America is a 5 billion USD market for mobile gaming followed by Japan which is 2 bn USD, China which is 1.2 bn USD and Korea is a 0.9 bn USD market. The mobile gaming market has been growing at a rapid pace across all these markets and market has witnessed true democratization of mobile gaming distribution resulting in new studios emerging with winner every day. The potential revenue per good quality AAA game is upwards of 100 million USD. However, the market is ultra-competitive with ‘winner take it all’ being the reality.

     

    Given this scenario, it is imperative for a game development studio like us to employ the best of the global talent and create processes and systems which reduce probability of failure. We have consciously adopted strategy of partnering with large Hollywood studios and known IPs like F1 to avoid risk of being lost in 250k games on iTunes store and 800 games getting uploaded every day. Our strategy of having known IP coupled with good quality game has been a demonstrated success with Real Steel and F1. We are looking to augment our slate for next year by partnering with developers worldwide and have very strong lineup of 8-10 large IP-based games for next year. We are confident of hitting double digit million USD revenue with this slate and would like to keep fingers crossed for a massive hit which one cannot predict.

     

    04. We’ve seen some restructuring at Reliance Digital with Jump Games being rechristened Zapak Mobile. What are your plans for the next year?

    Zapak is synonymous with gaming in India and Jump Games is relatively unknown brand outside India and is a B2B brand in India. As we are looking at aggressive growth in next 2-3 years for the market and for ourselves, we would like to build brand familiarity for one single brand across consumers and stakeholder so that we are able to stand out among the huge clutter of gaming companies already existing outside India and would happen in India. Choice was to build Jump or Zapak outside India and given that Zapak is already synonymous with gaming in India, we decided to consolidate the gaming business under Zapak. Zapak is the only company which offers gaming experience to consumers on all touch points and offers advertisers solutions across all touch points. Zapak aims to become largest gaming company in India by revenues, consumers and IPs if it is not already.

     

    There has been some quiet on the Big Adda front?

    Big Adda is a horizontal e commerce platform and since e commerce in India is still gross margin negative business, we have taken a conscious call to say no to invest in consumer acquisition and wait for e-commerce to mature in this country before we re-start the investment. We are running a full fledged e-commerce service and maintaining its scale as and when we see an opportunity to create profitable business.

     

    And with Big Flicks – are broadband speeds the stumbling block for its growth?

    Big Flicks is the first subscription-based on-demand movie streaming service and we have over 2000 movies across languages with distribution reach across all hand held platforms, pc and smart TVs. We believe that there is huge latent demand for movies on demand service at home as well as on-the-go. However, internet speeds are the only thing which inhibits the subscriber base in India to outshine the Netflix subscriber base in US. We believe that high-speed always-connected broadband is closer to reality now than in past and Big Flix is uniquely poised to exploit the inflexion point in broadband growth.

     

    05. Any trends that you could forecast for us – in terms of what we should look forward to in the next year?

    Micro-transactions via mobile carrier billing coupled with change in revenue sharing by telco in favour of developers and service providers would change the shape of VAS industry in this country. It would result in innovations in content, give a fillip to players who understand pull-based direct-to-consumer services and would lead to growth in data driven marketing thinking.

     

    Gamification would be the next big thing in digital across enterprise and consumer digital marketing as consumers would like to have fun rather than follow regimentation. Zapak has created advergaming in India five years back and we have evangelizing Gamification to Indian advertisers as this has already caught fancy of advertisers in west and as per Pew research report, gamification is going to be biggest trend in advertising by 2015.

     

    How is the digital entertainment business doing in terms of talent? Are you getting the right kind of people to join in?

    Talent remains biggest concern on the game development front. The lack of good quality game designers, art directors and producers make it extremely difficult to compete in ultra-competitive mobile gaming space outside India. Likewise, finding talent which can think beyond performance and think of highly engaging 360-degree digital solutions remains a challenge. A business savvy ‘digital baby’ is tough to get hampering the growth of companies like Zapak which thrive on offering cutting edge gaming solutions to advertisers.

     

  • Reliance Entertainment Digital has created a unified brand identity for its gaming operations with three verticals: Zapak Solutions, Zapak Online and WAP portal and Zapak Mobile

    Reliance Ent consolidates gaming biz under ‘Zapak’

    By A Correspondent

     

    Reliance Entertainment Digital, which has two gaming brands under its portfolio – Jump Games and Zapak Digital Entertainment, has announced the consolidation of its gaming business under the brand name ‘Zapak’. With this initiative, Jump Games, a leading International developer and publisher of Mobile games, Apps and Content will be rebranded and rechristened as Zapak Mobile Games Pvt. Ltd The integrated brand ‘Zapak’ will now reach out to over 20 million gamers across the globe who would be able to access nearly 2000 games on the Mobile and Web, a communique adds.

     

    This move is part of the company’s growth strategy, while leveraging Zapak’s existing brand popularity and recall. Post the restructure, Zapak Digital Entertainment will operate three business verticals:

     

    1. Zapak Solutions, which will specialize in providing cutting-edge Advergaming and Gamification solutions to brands across Mobile and Online platforms worldwide.

     

    2. Zapak Online & WAP Portal, which will offer free & freemium casual games on web & mobile via its platforms – zapak.com & m.zapak.com.

     

    3. Zapak Mobile, which will continue to develop and publish cutting edge games across platforms for its Indian and global audiences.

     

    Manish Agarwal

    Speaking on the business development, Manish Agarwal, CEO, Reliance Entertainment Digital said, “This move is aimed at exploiting huge gaming potential on mobile and leveraging gaming synergies existing within the group to focus on ‘Mobile First’, while leveraging on the Zapak brand name that is synonymous with gaming over the years. We stay committed to offering consumers and advertisers, the world-over, best-in-class options through highly engaging mobile games, easy to play and discover casual gaming destination and innovations in consumer engagement through Advergaming and Gamification solutions across all consumer touch points.”

     

  • Eric Marlow joins Jump Games as VP-Global Studios

    Mumbai, October 8th, 2012:  Reliance Entertainment Digital’s game division Jump Games, a leading international publisher and developer mobile games, apps, and content, has brought on board Eric Marlow as Vice President in charge of their Global Studios.  Marlow is a veteran when it comes to the game development.  He has more than 13 years in the games industry, with additional work in strategy at management consulting firm Coopers & Lybrand (now PricewaterhouseCoopers).

     

    Eric joins Jump Games from Zynga, where he was an Executive Producer responsible for leadership and direction of Mafia Wars, one of their most respected franchises. Marlow has also worked with notable UK-based developer Kuju Entertainment where he spearheaded their foray into Asia and led their operations in the Philippines as their President and Head of Studio.

     

    Marlow will oversee the current slate of development projects underway, chart the company’s growth into new regions, and expand the product portfolio by enhancing the company’s relationship with 3rd party developers.

     

    Commenting on the appointment, Mr. Manish Agarwal, CEO, Reliance Entertainment Digital said, “We at Jump Games welcome Eric on board.  He has uniquely distinguished himself as one of a handful of videogame executives with true multi-regional experience. His knowledge of the industry will be critical for us to develop world class products and tap the mobile gaming opportunities worldwide.  With his addition to the team, we are confident of adding many more games to the current lists of successes which Jump has seen in last 18 months e.g. Real Steel, F1 2011, etc.”.

     

    Speaking on his appointment, Marlow said, “I am honored to be a part of Jump Games.  Enhancing their global presence is a great opportunity, and I am particularly interested with their association with Reliance Entertainment and their fantastic IP.  I am looking forward to the great games that will result”.

     

  • Border War LOC, the sequel of Border War Face off (a patriotic attempt from Jump) is out

    Border War Face Off gets one million downloads on Nokia

    By A Correspondent

     

    Border War Face-off, an arcade game made on patriotic lines by Jump Games (a part of Reliance Entertainment Digital and a leading developer and distributor of mobile games) was released in October 2011 across all leading operators like Vodafone, Docomo, Reliance, Idea, and others.

     

    The game is to save Mother India from enemies’ invasion by playing a courageous soldier defending our borders from an enemy invasion. This game is Jump’s own IP and is extremely popular among the youth gamers. The figures have been good from the very beginning but in mid-February Jump decided to ad wrap this game and put it up on Nokia OVS stores and by mid-March the game had over one million downloads.

     

    Since then Jump’s social website pages have been flooded with user requests to add innovations to the game. After the over whelming success of Border War Face Off and persistent user request Jump has now come up with the sequel called Border War-LOC.

     

    Border War Line of Control is the modern day rendition of an arcade classic. The gamer, as an Indian soldier, will have to protect the Indian borders with a new age weapon, Super Cannon.

     

    The various features of the game are:

    • A classic arcade game with very vivid and crystal clear graphics
    • A huge diversity in the type of enemies
    • Easy to use controls

     

    Speaking about this particular launch of the game, Chaitanya Prabhu, Business Head India, Jump Games said: “The game ideation started around august last year. We wanted to create games which are suitable for Indian audience and tap the Indian mentality, sensitivity and lifestyle. The game Border war, as the name suggests is based on patriotic lines with some great visual graphics. Jump has always believed in the motto of Think Global – Play Local. Now seeing the over whelming response of Border War -Face Off we have made a sequel to the same called Border War -LOC. It has a very engaging game play and we are expecting a similar or better response for the same.”

     

    The game, priced at Rs 50, will be available on all leading operators like Vodafone, BSNL, Idea, Docomo.

     

    Jump Games is a leading International developer and publisher of mobile games, apps and content. It is an integral part of Reliance Entertainment (Digital Business). Jump’s foray and expertise lies into the media and entertainment space.

     

    Jump’s experience and expertise in creating innovative and cutting-edge gaming content reflects in its client roster, which sports some of the best brands from across the world – Codemasters, GLU, Playboy Hands On / Connect 2 Media, Honest Entertainment (Fido Dido), Coca-Cola, Cartoon Network, and Konami to name a few.

     

    The company develops content across leading wireless platforms and its catalogue includes leading titles like Ben 10: Battle of the Omnitrix, Bloons, Putt-Putt Golf 3D, ICC World Cup, Ashes Cricket.

     

    Distributed across the US, Europe, South Africa, Australia, the Middle East, and Asia, Jump’s content can be accessed through 80 leading networks across 40 countries as well as global AppStores.

  • Mr Prabhu has an experience of over 13 years, out of which seven have been in pure digital arena

    Chaitanya Prabhu joins Jump Games as Business Head

    By A Correspondent

     

    Chaitanya Prabhu has joined Jump Games (subsidiary of Reliance Entertainment Digital) as of March 1, as Business Head - India. Mr Prabhu has an experience of over 13 years, out of which seven have been in pure digital arena.

     

    His last stint was with Nokia, wherein he was responsible for setting up the Ovi Music Unlimited Service inIndia. After the success of the Ovi Music Unlimited inIndia, he was moved within Nokia to build the developer ecosystem for the Nokia store business. He worked with developers’ ecosystem to build monetization models for publishers/ developers and created some marquee apps for Nokia with Windows devices.

     

    Under his guidance and leadership, app download from Ovi store shot up from one  million a week to 2 million per day.

     

    Ask him one thing that made him leave the music lineage and join hard core gaming and the prompt reply: “Looking at how content owners play a key part in the success of the mobile ecosystems, I was very excited when I got an opportunity to head theIndiabusiness at Jump Games. I did foresee a big opportunity for Jump Games to be an integral part of the content and developer ecosystems and work with them to create exciting monetization models around gaming”

     

    Before Nokia, Mr Prabhu has worked with several renowned companies like Universal Music and Reliance Retail. He has completed his Masters in Business Administration from NMIMS, Mumbai.

     

  • The mobile game app is among the top 10 paid apps on iOS

    Real Steel boxes its way into Top 10 iTunes Chart

    By A Correspondent

     

    Jump Games, a company owned by Reliance Entertainment’s Digital Arm, has set new records on the Apple iTunes with Real Steel, the official mobile game for the movie, Real Steel.

     

    Real Steel has received a staggering response, it is the first game made by an Indian Studio to touch such impressive figures on the iTunes Chart. The figures say it all: Best Top Sports Paid Apps Rank - 1; Best Top Action Paid Apps Rank – 5; Real Steel climbs to No. 6 in Top Paid Apps (Courtesy iOS)

     

    Real Steel has been in the top 50 list on the App store in countries like theUS, Australia,Canada,Germany and many others.

     

    This Underworld fighting game, which is an actual replica of the Real Steel movie, is set in the near future where 2,000-pound robots fight each other with no rules or regulations.

     

    To keep the player engaged, Jump keeps coming up with constant timely updates for the game ,current one being addition of two new ruthless robots - Twincites and Blacjac.

     

    The game provides high adrenaline rush to the player and he/she can use a mix of standard boxing moves, jabs, crosses, hooks, uppercuts, and some specific Underworld moves, such as low blows, knees to stomach, and so on in the fight. The game is available at just 0.99 cents on Apps store.

     

    Jump Games is a leading International developer and publisher of mobile games, apps and content. It is an integral part of Reliance Entertainment (Digital Business). Jump’s foray and expertise lies into the media and entertainment space.

     

    Jump partners with leading content owners, publishers, mobile operators, handset manufacturers and technology providers. Jump’s experience and expertise in creating innovative and cutting-edge gaming  content reflects in its client roster, which lists some of the best brands from across the world - Codemasters, GLU, Playboy  Hands-on, Dreamworks, Cartoon Network, and Konami to name a few.

     

    Fueling concepts for these ground-breaking games is the domain expertise of Jump’s strong, multi-disciplinary, and cross-skilled team spanning across the US, UK and India.

     

    Distributed across theUS, Europe, South Africa, Australia, the Middle East, and Asia, Jump’s content can be accessed through 80 leading networks across 40 countries as well as global AppStores. The content is available on leading networks like Vodafone, BSNL, TATA Docomo, M1, MTNL, Dialog Telekom, Reliance Mobile World, Telstra, Tele2, TIM, O2, Virgin Mobile, KPN, Telia, 3,Telefonica, Optimus, and Telenor.