By IANS,
Kolkata : London-based Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) would launch six to seven Indian games this year, a top official said here Monday.
“We will launch games based on Indian contexts, like traditional Indian outdoor and indoor games and another game based on the underworld activities in Mumbai,” Atindriya Bose, country-manager – Playstation, part of Sony Computer Entertainment, told IANS.
In order to catch the fancy of the young generation, SCEE is all set to launch localised games. “We have taken new direction in terms of localisation. We recognise the importance of localised content,” Bose said.
The Indian Village game of the company would help the player score in traditional games like pasha, kabaddi, gili danda and kite flying.
Apart from the Indian Village and the Mumbai Underworld games, SCEE would also launch quiz-based games, he added.
Late last month SCEE launched “Hanuman: Boy Warrior”, a game that can be played in Hindi. “It’s our first indigenously developed Indian game,” Bose said.
In the last three months, the global launches of SCEE are Killzone 2, Resistance Retribution, Racing Game and Little Big Planet.
The gaming device on which games are played are PlayStation2 (PS2) and PlayStationPortable (PSP) – hand-held gaming devices – and PlayStation3 (PS3), a top-end model.
“The six to seven games that will be launched in India can be played between PS2 and PSP platforms,” Bose confirmed.
All these games are developed in partnership with separate gaming studios in India.
“We are working with many of them like – Hyderabad-based Aurona Technologies, which developed Hanuman, the quiz-based game is being done by Bangalore-based Candela, Indian Village and Mumbai Underworld games are being developed by Hyderabad-based Game Shastra,” he said.
“All these games require around 10 months to be completely developed,” he added.
SCEE registered 300 percent growth in 2008. “We occupy around 80 percent of the market-size,” he said. The other close competitor of SCEE in India is Microsoft.
Bose said the gaming industry was growing very fast in the country.
Asked how the industry is affected by the global economic slowdown, he said: “Things were tough in November and December. But it has started looking good once again from January.”