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Agni blazes on the Indian gaming scene
Agni, the new game from FXLabs, was launched last night in a third person role playing format. The brand avatar for the game is actor and model Malaika Arora Khan
FXLabs, in conjunction with Zapak and Sify, has launched Agni, one of the first Bollywood PC games. Hindi film actor and model Malaika Arora Khan is the brand avatar for the game.
Addressing the launch conference, founder and chairman of FXLabs Sashi Reddi points out, “As compared to the US or China, India doesn’t have much of a game industry yet. And with this game, we hope to change that scene.”
Reddi lists three reasons why the gaming scene in India is so dull:
· Most people think PC games are for software geeks.
· People think they need access to a PC and the Internet in order to play games.
· There are few games that have an indigenous element to which Indian audiences can relate. PC and Internet based games are generally imported and are in English, which serves as a barrier to a large chunk of the Indian population.
Sify, with its iWay cafes, has made the Internet accessible to most cities in the country, and FXLabs has met the Indian flavour requirement with Agni. The game is available in Hindi and the characters are of Indian origin.
Arun Mehra, chief marketing officer, Zapak, says, “The international standards and the quality of the game prompted us to associate with the game even though it is a PC game.” Zapak will support the game offline through its Gameplexes and host a tournament around it. The tournament will be flagged off by Khan in Delhi. Zapak will also create buzz through a 60 minute sampling version of the game on its portal.
Sify looks at projecting the game through its 200 GameDromes and 1,000 Sify iWays with game enabled PCs. “We intend marketing Agni through our online mall at Sify.com,” says CVS Suri, chief operating officer, Sify Technologies.
Agni is a third person shooter role playing game (TPS-RPG). The game features more than 10 original scenic stages and four different characters. The game, which took about two years to put together, will begin shipping from February 27 at a price tag of Rs 549. The Hindi version will be available in India. The game will also have a Russian version for sale in that country.