Indiagames to host global mobile games contest

Offline contest of WCG will be held across 24 cities

Indiagames, a leading Indian mobile entertainment developer and publisher, has signed an agreement with International Cyber Marketing (ICM), a game marketing company, to host the World Cyber Games Competition (WCG) for mobile phones.

WCG is the world's largest computer and video game festival including game competitions, conferences and exhibitions.

According to the agreement, Indiagames will function as ICM's mobile game partner and plan and operate mobile tournaments meant for the WCG 2005 Grand Final. Thereby, Indiagames will hold gaming competitions over mobile phones across 25 countries of which India will be a part.

According to a company spokesperson, Indiagames will work with game publishers to select a list of five official game titles. They will sign up with a telecom operator in India who will display these games for download in their WAP portals.

Customers who wish to participate will have to pay a fee to download the game from the site. Their scores will automatically be carried through to the operator and Indiagames and after three months the highest scorers will be called to the WCG offline competition.

The offline competition will be held in 24 cities across India. During the competition, a finalist in each of the five games will be chosen to represent India in the grand finale in Singapore.

The above process will be repeated for all countries where Indiagames will offer the competition including USA, England, Germany, South Africa, China and Malaysia. This is the first time that mobile gaming is being included in the WCG.

Vishal Gondal, CEO of Indiagames, said, "With the advent of 3G and multiplayer gaming and the popularity of gaming competitions, it was important to bring to the mobile games industry a very respectable and truly global game competition. World Cyber Games is a global youth phenomenon which has brought together over 1 million players from across the world for computer and video games. Looking at the size and the temperament of the mobile audience we hope to attract millions of participants and form the largest community of gamers across the world."

Hank Jeong, CEO of ICM, said, "Based on the success in India, we'll continue to develop new business opportunities using WCG brand with companies all over the world. We'll foster the WCG brand by promoting brand value through constant investment and business development."

No details were available on the revenue sharing that will happen as part of the mobile gaming. In India, mobile gaming has picked up to a huge extent the past one year with an average 4,50,000 downloads of mobile games, at an average Rs 80 per game, happening every month.

According to the Indiagames spokesperson, the market is growing at nearly 10 per cent every month and Tamil Nadu tops the list for most downloads followed by Punjab, Delhi and Mumbai.

Indiagames is engaged in publishing and developing games across various platforms like Internet, PC, broadband, mobile phones, PDAs, handheld gaming devices and consoles.

In late 2004, TOM Online, a Chinese wireless media company, signed an agreement to acquire an 80.6 per cent equity stake in Indiagames. By the agreement, TOM Online acquired around 77 per cent of Indiagames from existing investors including Infinity Ventures, IL&FS Investment Managers.

The reminder will be in the form of new shares valued at $4 million. Some of the top level management of the company, including Gondal, retain nearly 20 per cent of the stake.

The agreement with ICM also says that Indiagames can hold WCG mobile game competitions or related events using the WCG title for three years. WCG 2005, will be held in Singapore in mid-November.