(21 February 2008 5:00 pm)

MUMBAI: Indian gaming company FXLabs has launched its first PC adventure game Agni. For this, it has partnered with Reliance Entertainment’s gaming portal Zapak and Sify to publish the game online.

With Malaika Arora Khan as the brand avatar, Agni is being positioned as the first PC game developed in India to meet global quality standards.

Agni is a third-person shooter role-playing game, and has action and drama. It features over 10 scenic stages and one plays as four characters Agni, Ghayab, Tara and Adhira. Each has its own special attributes, weapons and spells. It is being released in Hindi.

The game involves finding Tara’s lost child. She has lost it to the underworld. As players move up the levels by defeating monsters, they find out more about the story.

FXLabs founder and chairman Sashi Reddy says, “In the US, the gaming industry is bigger than film. In China, the top five gaming companies are worth $10 billion. In India, there are three reasons why gaming is not as big yet. Firstly, there has always been the perception that gaming is for geeks and the technologically savvy.

“What Zapak has done though is bring it out into the mainstream. The second reason is the lack of access to PCs and internet connections. Sify has done its bit with its 250 Gamedromes. The third reason is that there is not enough local content. Spiderman, Need for Speed are foreign games. Hopefully, in the future, there will be more local games and Agni is a milestone in this regard.

“The way for the Indian market to grow is through more local games which are relevant. That is what we are doing. Agni took two years and a team of 70 people to create. We have followed the AAA international production standard that rivals the best PC games in terms of quality. We chose Malaika as she is a mother and will appeal to the young audience below the age of 30.”

Zapak CMO Arun Mehra notes that the company is the leader in the gaming space with a gaming community of four million residing within it. He says that Zapak was excited as Agni is one of the first Indian games to meet international standards. “Therefore, despite the fact that this is a PC-based game, we felt it important to associate with it and promote it.

"Zapak.com will launch a one-hour trial version online. We will promote the game through our gameplexes. We will also have a tournament around it in a couple of weeks time. We expect 3,000 gamers to take part in this.”

Sify COO CVS Suri notes that the company has been developing the online games market in India through its Gamedromes and over a thousand Sify I-Ways with game-enabled PCs in over a hundred cities. He also notes that the Indian characters and local flavour will help the game to capture the imagination of the gaming community. He adds that now game developers can use simulation to develop products. Simulation will also be used for training programmes.

Suri says that it is difficult for Indians to play physical sports due to the lack of infrastructure. It has also been shown that people who play games are more mentally alert in their work and other areas of life.

The game is priced at Rs 549. FXLabs is scheduled to release a game based on the film Dhoom 2 in April. It is also planning a game based on Archie comics. Next year, it will release its first massive multiplayer game.