Reliance Infocomm plans to ride gaming wave

Reliance Infocomm is upping its ante in the country's gaming scenario. With nearly 60 per cent of broadband users of Reliance web world being gamers, the company has decided to conduct "Counter Strike", a pan-Karnataka multiplayer gaming championship.

The announcement comes at a time when the company has successfully leveraged the presence of 250 web worlds across 110 cities in India. Having seen a great amount of interest among gamers for intra-city gaming championships, Reliance now plans to spread this gaming culture.

"Customers have been experiencing the power of real broadband speeds at Reliance web worlds, which enables them to play high quality, high graphic online games with superior digital experience. Reliance has also decided to organise a similar gaming championship on a national level in January 2005," Akhilesh Prasad, Karnataka Circle Head "� Reliance web worlds, told Business Standard.

Prasad added that Reliance was so serious about the gaming business that it even plans to get into teaching prospective gamers in the future.

Estimates from Reliance clearly indicate the growing interest for gaming across India. Reliance has witnessed nearly one lakh gamers across its outlets in India so far. Of this, nearly 20,000 people are loyal gamers. These people spend nearly two hours a day on gaming. Bangalore is one of the top cities in gaming for Reliance as it has nearly 8,000 hardcore gamers.

Explaining the significance of gaming across the world, Prasad said, "Since 2001, worldwide revenues from gaming have far exceeded movies. For instance, Microsoft's Halo-2 registered revenues of $125 million within 24 hours of launch. We feel these hardcore gamers in our web worlds spend over 50 per cent of their pocket money on gaming."

Reliance adheres to all anti-piracy laws while deploying these games at its web worlds. There are over 100 games and all these games are licensed directly from the owners.

Elaborating on the competition in Karnataka, Prasad said that the event will be held at Reliance web world outlets in Bangalore, Mysore, Mangalore, Hubli and Belgaum from December 16-19.

Besides hoping to see nearly 125 teams from Karnataka participate, the company also expects another 125 teams from Hyderabad, Chennai and Cochin. This comes as a result of an increasing demand to be part of such a championship in these cities. Each team will comprise of at least two members, with a registration fee of Rs 200 per team.

The participants will undergo preliminary elimination round on the first three days followed by pre-quarters, quarters, semi-final and finals on December 19. The total prize money for the event is Rs 3 lakh.