Gameshastra opens $5mn facility in Hyd

Game outsource services provider Gameshastra Solutions, the Indian subsidiary of New York-based Gameshastra Inc, opened its $5-million advanced game services facility in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

The company intends to invest another $20 million in the 25,000-sft facility over the next two years, besides substantially increasing its headcount by mid-2008.

"The facility will focus on providing full range of game development, game art, animation and quality assurance (QA) services for console, PC, online and mobile gaming platforms," Prakash Ahuja, chief executive officer of Gameshastra Inc, told the media today.

The company currently provides services to its anchor client, California-based $1.4-billion Activision Publishing Inc, besides half-a-dozen reputed clients under non-disclosure agreements (NDAs).

"We expect to garner revenues of $8 million from the Hyderabad facility this year, and $25 million in 2008," he added.

Gameshastra plans to reach a headcount of 500 professionals at its Hyderabad facility by this year end, from the present 180, and scale it up to 1,000 in the coming 18 months.

"Our relationship with Activision has been for over one-and-a-half years, and we have provided QA and testing services to 10 of their projects. We are looking forward to working closely with them in programming and game development as well. Going forward, we also plan to develop movie games based on Bollywood characters," he said.

Gameshastra also opened a 'Console Game Zone' at its Hyderabad facility showcasing leading game console machines loaded with the hottest games currently available.