Category Archives: India

Seriously. Microsoft has teamed up with ICICI Bank to “enable customers to enjoy the benefits of Digital Entertainment products” by issuing the Indian middle classes with Xbox 360 Visa cards.

This diamond-studded status symbol will get you discounts on Samsung, Kodak, and Xbox 360 products. For example, when you purchase a wireless controller with you 360 Visa, you get 10 percent off. There’s also a 15 percent discount on Dead Rising, Dead or Alive 4 or Gears of War when bought with the super-plastic.

By Mike Bowden

According to this MoneyControl India story, Microsoft has withdrawn its Indian marketing budget for Xbox 360 this year and has “withdrawn from several Tier-I cities due to lackluster sales” of the machine.

The piece continued, pulling no punches:

“The console’s last TV commercial, which featured Akshay Kumar and Yuvraj Singh was created in 2006, for the launch of the console business. The company has been facing dismal sales already due to sloppy customer support, high hardware failure, and pirated games. While Microsoft games cost upwards of Rs 2,500, it is easily available in the grey market for Rs 100.”

The story also points out that Mohit Anand, Indian manager of Microsoft’s Entertainment & Devices Division, left the company earlier this year, and that the division’s marketing boss, Ashim Mathur, is also now rumoured to be quitting.

Whoops. More through the link.

GameGuru’s reporting that GTA IV’s now shipped in India, following news last week that the game had been delayed in the country thanks to global shortages.

Apparently, though, the PS3 version is nowhere to be seen. Indian 360 owners rejoice, then. Better get importing if PS3′s your only route into Liberty City.

Thanks, SW.

As surprising as the moon coming up at night, but there we are. According to this MCV piece, GTA IV is top of the charts in Germany, Spain and Sweden this week, as well as probably everywhere else in the world. Apart from Japan. And India.

GameGuru, font of all games knowledge Indian, is reporting that GTA IV didn’t release in India on April 29 as previously hoped. Local distributor E-express has put the delay down to global shortage of the game, and no fresh date’s been given as yet.

Sorry about that, India.

According to this Rediff story, Sony’s signed deals with 13 developers in India in an effort to produce local PS2 software for both the Indian market and abroad.

In an effort to accelerate the growth of its popular gaming console Playstation 2 in India, Sony Computer Entertainment has tied up with 13 Indian game developers to produce Indian games that could be priced lower than the existing Rs 499 per title.

Atindriya Bose, country manager (Playstation), SCE, said game developers such as Indiagames, Trine, DQ Entertainment, Dhruva will be working with the company to produce games that could be marketed both in local and international markets.

Apparently Sony India’s going to be focussing on EyeToy games, and is looking to get the price of the titles as low as possible. Like, obviously. More through the link.

Ubisoft has just announced in a post-results conference call that is expects to hire an extra 900 staff in the next 12 months.

“Five hundred will go to the new studios,” said CEO Yves Guillemot, talking of expansion into India, Singapore and China.

The other 400 will be added to existing studios.

The publisher currently employs 3,600 staff.

According to Gameguru, GTA IV has been confirmed as an Indian release on April 29 along with the rest of the world.

Hilariously, the PS3 version is more expensive than the 360 game, at 2,999 rupees (£39) compared to 2,499 rupees (£32). Just goes to show.

According to numerous reports, Ubisoft is to buy Gameloft’s Indian development studio for an undisclosed sum.

The sub-continental outfit employs 120 game developers and testers, and Ubi plans to build this to 200 developers in the next 12 months, and to 500 in the coming years.

The studio is a handheld operation, creating games for DS, iPod and PSP.

According to this, GT5: Prologue and God of War: Chains of Olympus are launching in India on the same day as Europe. As in, tomorrow. There’s a report there from the launch event in Mumbai. Expect to see plenty more from the Indian games industry in the coming years, especially if companies like Sony keep managing to achieve simultaneous releases between Europe and the Subcontinent.

According to this, Mohit Anand has resigned from his position as country manager of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division in India, saying he wants to “move on to the next level to pursue my dreams.”

There’s rumour circling that Anand is leaving to head up Wii’s launch in India, but he’s saying nothing, only that, “hatever I do next will be in the cusp of entertainment, convergence, youth, gaming. It is all there. I’m not going to suddenly start selling rockets.”

Who mentioned rockets, Mohit? Why are you talking about rockets? All we can think about is Indian rockets now. Good luck with whichever arms dea… er… games convergence company you end up at next.

Speaking in this interview, Indian developer Sangam Gutpa has said that he ships the majority of artwork to his company’s Chinese arm as wage costs there are “half” those in India.

“We have 30-40 people in China already,” Gutpa said. “India was price effective, to be honest, until last year. Nowadays, after the dollar slipped, not any more… Now we send all our major artwork to China only, which is extremely cheap, almost half the Indian salary.”

Gutpa is the CEO of Mumbai-based Trine Games. The 190 staff studio is currently working on racing game Streets of Mumbai, a title called Legends of Great India, a flight shooter called Wings of Control and a sports game for Wii and Xbox 360.

Despite moving expensive art creation out to China, Gutpa added that there is a desperate need for more experienced games developers in India.

“Huge, huge, huge,” he said, when asked if there was a dearth of professionals in the country. “For the past year-and-a-half we have been doing things ourselves and training our guys.”

Very interesting read, that. Go have a look.

It’s all happening in India. Not only is Mumbai gaming expo SKOAR! looking like it may be on the roadshow “map” next year, PS3 Euro chief David Reeves can’t stop going on about how great the country is and Square Enix is looking for acquires in the country, but, even better than all of that, Microsoft has released Mistwalker RPG Lost Odyssey for Xbox 360 there. You lucky Indians.

We’re not joking, either. While that Game Guru story sounds as though it’s built on an official announcement, this would appear to mean that India has the game before America and Europe, the European release date being February 29. Which sounds a bit odd. The report says the game released on January 31, comes with a month’s free Live sub and costs 1895 rupees, which equates to about £25. Just don’t blame us if this is all a bit “lost” in translation, OK?

We’ll call Microsoft on Monday.