(7 November 2006 5:55 pm)

MUMBAI: Indiagames has announced the launch of its Games on Demand partnership program for Cyber Cafes. This initiative from Indiagames will help over 100,000 private internet cafes in India compete with organised players in the market.

Says Indiagames founder & CEO Vishal Gondal, "Besides broadband subscribers and home PC users, there is a large percentage of people in India who access the internet through internet cafes. With the launch of the Games on Demand Cyber Café Program, we hope to take a world class gaming experience to the masses."

When it comes to gaming in India, there are a host of issues like software piracy and the high prices of gaming software. Games on Demand is a unique offering that aims to successfully address all these issues. In addition to access to licensed original games, the Games on Demand service will prove to be a new source of income, as well as a great customer retention and loyalty tool for internet cafes, states an official release.

Games-on-Demand is a unique service which enables a user to choose and play from a catalogue of over 300 games without ever needing to purchase or install them on the local PC. Games on Demand features popular international games like Age of Empires II, Brian Lara's Cricket, IGI 2 Covert Strike and Toca Race Driver 2 amongst others. New games will be added every month thus offering consumers something to look forward to, the release adds.

Games on Demand is currently available to home internet users via Indiagames' partnership with leading broadband service providers like Airtel, MTNL, Tata VSNL, and You Telecom. The service will also be soon launched on BSNL which has India's largest broadband subscriber base.

The Games on Demand retail initiative from Indiagames will be supported by a host of advertising and publicity initiatives as well as on-ground events. The company is in the process of starting an online advertising campaign to support the initiative. Currently, the service has over 100 games on offer at just Rs 225 per month. These games will cost almost Rs100,000 at retail prices for legal software. Indiagames has tied up with leading publishers like Microsoft, Codemasters, Playfirst, Atari and Activision amongst others for this service, the release further adds.