Developers feel the trend of convergence of movies and gaming in the last year will continue in 2012.
Salman Khan gave Indian box office a major fillip with his film Bodyguard last year, and the film’s mobile game continues to create ripples through the digital world in 2012. Launched in late November, the game is a hot favourite on Buzzcity's games downloads portal, Djuzz.
"In December 2011, the game was downloaded 30,000 times and we expect this to be higher in January," said KF Lai, CEO, BuzzCity, a mobile media company. Bollywood game titles like Delhi Belly (released in July 2011) continue to be downloaded 4,000 times a month, even six months after the movie's release.
Buzzcity estimates that last year there were 20 game titles based on movie or TV titles among the top 100 games of the year, generating 10 million downloads.
Reliance Entertainment-owned Jump Games, which acquired the gaming rights of the Bodyguard, had launched the game for casual gamers. Available for both Java and Brew-based phones along with smartphones (including Android and BlackBerry), the game involves multiple levels where players play as Lovely Singh (Salman Khan's character in the movie). The company priced the game at Rs 50 and revenues earned from downloads were shared between the telecom operator, Jump Games and the producers of the movie. Jump Games has also created successful mobile games for movies such as 3 Idiots, Dum Maro Dum, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara and Singham.
According to FICCI KPMG report 2011, mobile gaming is growing at a CAGR of 45 per cent and is to reach 17.4 billion by 2015.
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"Buzzcity started distributing a mobile game based on Harry Potter Half Blood Prince in November 2010 that was downloaded 370,000 times in 2011. We are also seeing similar figures for games based on films like Avatar and Last Airbender, for which the game and movie were released almost simultaneously in July 2010," said Lai. Lai added that most film-based games may last up to three weeks, while celebrity game titles last up to three months. "There is a long tail effect: There are more downloads over time than at the launch. Clearly, titles based on popular culture (e.g. movies) enjoy more attention," noted Lai.
Developers feel there has been a positive trend of convergence of movies and gaming in the last year that would continue in 2012. Manish Agarwal, COO (digital), Reliance Entertainment said, "We have experimented with free versions that help in promoting the film among the audience prior to release and games that are available for a certain price. Further, we see revenue models such as in-game purchases or pay-per-play making their way in India."
Agarwal pointed, with the mobile game, the film's producers can reach the desired audience, use the game as a marketing tool and if the film succeeds it can give decent returns to the developer and operator partner. Pritie Jadhav, COO, P9 Integrated, the in-film marketing agency from Percept Group, said, "The fascination with films to launch games will continue in 2012 as gaming becomes an important touch point for films to connect with target audience. But, unless filmmakers and developers are able to strategically monetise the game, the trend could fizz."
Rise of independent mobile distribution systems such as app stores, game portals and associated mobile payment systems have helped developers to sell gaming titles to a worldwide market, thus widening their distribution. Recently, Nokia's Ovi Store helped UTV Indiagames to extend its mobile game, Ra.One Genesis, to 2.5 million mobile users, with total downloads nearing 9 million across platforms like Facebook and iPhone. The game is a 2D action packed adventure mobile game where the user plays as 'G.One-the superhero' and has to fight his way through Ra.One's army.
Lai too added that while a mobile game needs an investment between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 15 lakh, the cost recovery depends on the game's genre, film's success and cast.
"The monetisation is not an easy task, since the revenue has to be shared amongst the production house, telecom operator or websites and the gaming company," said Lai.