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Reliance Big Entertainment acquires 50% of UK’s Codemasters
MUMBAI: Reliance Big Entertainment (RBEL), part of the Reliance ADA group, has acquired a 50 per cent stake in the British video games developer and publisher company Codemasters for an undisclosed amount.
Balderton Capital, the European venture capital firm, holds the remaining 50 per cent in the games company behind Lord of the Rings Online, Colin McRae Rally and Formula One.
Zapak Digital Entertainment, the gaming division of RBEL, will oversee the investment in Codemasters.
With this acquisition, Zapak will get an international foothold in the US, UK, Germany, France, Spain, and Benelux.
Says Zapak CEO Rohit Sharma, “We are excited to partner with Codemasters and believe its very strong technology, development and distribution presence will complement our global gaming portfolio. Additionally, Zapak‘s global strength in mobile gaming will enhance Codemasters‘ ability to fully leverage its attractive franchises such as its racing and cricket games.”
Adds Codemasters CEO Rod Cousens, “The opportunities arising from this partnership are truly exciting. This is great news for our development and publishing teams. Reliance and Zapak have immense resources and will help us realise the full potential of our game coding and online excellence across so many platforms, and especially in the world‘s fastest growing markets.”
Codemasters, a 21-year-old company, has annual revenues in excess of $150 million and has franchises in cricket games (The Ashes), racing games (Formula 1, Dirt2 and Race Driver Grid), performance games (Dance Factory) and military simulations (Operation Flashpoint 2). It employees over 450 people worldwide.
Zapak is one of the largest gaming companies in India, with interests in online casual games, massively multiplayer online games (MMOG) publishing, chain of gaming cafes and physical distribution of gaming software.
Zapak also controls Jump Games, an international mobile game development and publishing company with global distribution across Asia, Europe, North America, and South America.
Zapak works closely with most of the leading global gaming and entertainment players such as EA, Microsoft, Valve, Popcap, Boonty, Payfirst, Disney, Universal Studioa, Shanda, Jagex, Cartoon Network, THQ, iPlay and Hands-On.
Indian gaming companies are trying to build scale and grow inorganically as they covet a footprint outside India in the main consumption markets of the world.
Two years back, UTV Software Communications had made investments in Ignition (console games), True Games (online games) and Indiagames (mobile games).
Says UTV Group CFO Rajeev Wagle, “This acquisition by Reliance is great news for the gaming industry. Asia is growing to be a strong player in gaming consumption and development and it is high time that Indian corporates explore this space. UTV pioneered this two years back with its acquisitions and is working on developing IP’s for each of the platforms.”
UTV is set to release its first online title in the first-quarter of this fiscal and its first console title by Christmas this year, making it a global player in this space.
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Inshorts Group chief Deepit Purkayastha joins IAB video council for Southeast Asia and India
The co-founder and chief executive of the short-form content platform has been inducted into the IAB SEA+India Video Council, giving India a stronger voice in shaping digital video frameworks
NOIDA: India has long been the world’s most chaotic, multilingual and mobile-first digital market. Now, one of its most prominent short-video executives is getting a seat at the table where the rules are written.
Deepit Purkayastha, co-founder and chief executive of Inshorts Group, has been selected as a member of the IAB SEA+India Video Council for 2026. Run by the Interactive Advertising Bureau, the council brings together senior leaders from Southeast Asia and India to shape standards, best practices and measurement frameworks for the fast-evolving video and digital advertising ecosystem.
The timing is pointed. According to the IAMAI-Kantar Internet in India Report 2025, over 588 million Indians are now consuming short-video content, with growth increasingly driven by rural and non-metro audiences. India’s active internet user base has crossed 950 million, with 57 per cent of users now coming from rural markets. Yet the frameworks that govern how video consumption is measured and monetised were largely designed for single-language, Western markets and have struggled to keep pace with the scale, diversity and complexity of India’s digital landscape.
Purkayastha is no stranger to these debates. He already serves on the AI Council at Marketing and Media Alliance India and as co-chair of the Digital Entertainment Committee at the Internet and Mobile Association of India. His induction into the IAB SEA+India Video Council extends that influence into the global video standards arena.
Inshorts Group sits squarely at the intersection of these forces. Its flagship product, Inshorts, India’s highest-rated short news app, reaches 12 million active users with 60-word news summaries. Its sister platform, Public App, reaches 80 million monthly active users across more than 700 districts and 12 languages, serving communities that most global platforms barely register.
Purkayastha said the opportunity was about building something more representative. “India today sits at the centre of the global video ecosystem, but the frameworks that define how value is created and measured have not always kept pace with the realities of our market,” he said. “Being part of the IAB SEA+India Video Council is an opportunity to contribute to a more representative and future-ready approach, one that accounts for diversity in language, context, and user intent.”
As a council member, Purkayastha will contribute to shaping regional standards across video advertising, measurement and platform governance, with a focus on frameworks that are native to India’s multilingual, mobile-first ecosystem rather than imported from global benchmarks designed elsewhere.
For years, India has been content to play by rules written for other markets. Purkayastha’s induction is a signal that it is done waiting to be consulted and ready to start writing them.
