Gaming
Pokémon Go takes over India’s Nexus Malls with legendary loot and lively lures
MUMBAI: Get ready to catch ’em all in real life. Pokémon Go Fest 2025: Global is landing in India, and Niantic is teaming up with Nexus Malls to turn shopping centres into Poké-playgrounds across five major cities. The AR-powered global event, set for 28-29 June, promises exclusive spawns, special research tasks, avatar upgrades, and for the first time ever, a chance to encounter the mythical Volcanion.
From Navi Mumbai’s Nexus Seawoods to Delhi’s Select CityWalk, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and Chennai, Trainers can immerse themselves in the Pokémon universe through high-energy meetups and interactive zones. In addition to the mall takeovers, virtual Trainer meetups will roll out across 26 cities, including Coimbatore, Kolkata, Guwahati and Dehradun.
Expressing his excitement on the global edition of Pokémon Go Fest 2025, Niantic Indian manager Sundarraman Ramalingam said, “Pokémon Go Fest 2025: Global is more than just a virtual event, its a celebration of exploration, community, and the spirit of discovery that defines Pokémon Go. With the long-awaited debut of Volcanion, exciting in-game content, and special experiences at Nexus Malls across India, we’re bringing Trainers closer together, no matter where they are in the world.
He added, “Collaborating with Nexus Malls allows us to bring Pokémon Go to life in spaces that are not only safe and accessible but also deeply rooted in local communities. These vibrant venues help us spark real-world connections and welcome new Trainers into the adventure.”
Nexus Malls CMO Nishank Joshi said,”We are excited to partner with Pokémon Go Fest 2025: Global and bring this incredible global experience to our malls across India. At Nexus Malls, we are always looking for ways to create vibrant, engaging spaces where communities can come together. Pokémon Go is all about exploration and connection, and our malls are the perfect places to bring those moments to life. This partnership is just the beginning and we look forward to creating many more unique, interactive experiences for our visitors in the future.”
With bonuses galore, rotating habitats, and a shot at snagging Shiny Carbink or Shiny Frigibax, Nexus is about to become the next big PokéStop. Entry is free, but serious Trainers may want to grab a ticket for exclusive in-game access.
The hunt begins on 28 June at 10 am. Trainers, charge those power banks — it’s going to be a wild weekend.
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Gaming
India’s broadcasters say no to Fifa World Cup 2026
Fifa has slashed its asking price by 65 per cent but India’s broadcasters are still not buying
MUMBAI: The world’s biggest sporting event cannot find a single taker in the world’s most sports-mad nation. Fifa’s television rights for the 2026 World Cup remain unsold in India, and the clock is ticking loudly.
To shift the property, world football’s governing body has already swallowed hard and cut its asking price from $100m to $35m, bundling in the 2030 edition as a sweetener. It has not worked. Indian broadcasters have looked at the offer, done the sums and quietly walked away.
The reasons are brutally simple. The 2026 tournament, co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, kicks off in a time zone that turns India’s primetime into a graveyard shift. Most matches will air between midnight and 7am IST, a scheduling catastrophe for advertisers chasing mass reach. The 2022 Qatar edition was a gift by comparison, with matches dropping neatly into Indian evenings. North America offers no such luxury.
The market itself has also changed beyond recognition. The merger of Star India and Viacom18 into JioStar has gutted the competitive tension that once sent sports rights prices soaring. Where rival bidders once slugged it out, there is now a single dominant buyer, and it is in no hurry. JioStar has valued the rights at roughly $25m, a full $10m below Fifa’s already-discounted floor price. That gap has so far proved unbridgeable.
Broadcasters are also nursing a ferocious cricket hangover. Between 2022 and 2023, Indian media houses committed well over $10bn to cricket rights alone, covering IPL, ICC events and BCCI domestic fixtures combined. After a binge of that scale, appetite for a football package that delivers a fraction of the ratings, in the dead of night, is close to zero.
The economics of football broadcasting make the maths even harder. Cricket, with its natural breaks every few overs, is an advertiser’s paradise. Football offers a 15-minute halftime and precious little else. Recovering a nine-figure rights fee from a single half-hour ad window is a stretch at the best of times. These are not the best of times: the Indian government’s tightening grip on real-money gaming and gambling advertising has vaporised a category that once underwrote the economics of big sporting events.
Nor is the World Cup an anomaly. Indian Super League valuations have cratered. English Premier League rights have softened across successive cycles. The cooling of football as a broadcast commodity in India is structural, not cyclical.
With the tournament opening on 11th June, Fifa is running out of road. It may yet blink and meet JioStar at $25m. Or it may go direct, streaming the entire tournament on its own platform, Fifa+, or cutting a digital deal with YouTube, and hoping that a generation of Indian football fans finds its way there without a broadcaster to guide them.
Either way, the beautiful game’s Indian chapter is looking decidedly ugly.
