Roadside Romeo, will be the first fully animated 90-minute feature being worked on. Tata Elxsi, VCL, is doing the post-production. Industry analysts point out that during the year, after the announcement of Roadside Romeo, many more animated movies were announced. It is estimated that at least fifteen such animation films are currently in various stages of production. Amongst them was live action cum animated Maya Entertainments Toonpur ka Superhero.

Another 3D animated feature, The Dream Blanket, is under UTV and Epiphany Films production. Shemaroo Entertainment too announced a big bang entry during the year into the Indian Animation IP business. The company has entered into a co-production deal with Hyderabad based Sun Animatics for the marketing, distribution, and various business deals for Ghatothkach-The Master of Magic which is expected to release later this year.

Apart from this there were many new ventures that started. Eros International, which is one of the leading film production and distribution companies too forayed into visual effects services in association with VFX artist Charles Darby. The new venture is called EyeQube Studios.

One of the most popular Indian animated feature sequels of the year, Hanuman Returns, also released this year.

In another significant development in the animation industry, DQ Entertainment raised funds to the tune of Rs 226 crore through its listing on the Alternative Investment Market, London Stock Exchange. The funds will be primarily used for DQ Entertainments expansions of several production facilities in India; more sales and distribution network worldwide, direct and co-investment in IPRs global partnerships, immediate European acquisitions, and joint ventures.

Another US-based Company, Sony Pictures Imageworks (SPI) picked up an equity stake in visual effects and animation studio FrameFlow, which has its production operations in Chennai.

Industry observers believe that the market will see many stereoscopic 3D movies emerge. According to market estimates more than 2,500 cinemas in the United States alone are gearing up for 3D projection. Interestingly, there could be a market in the future to convert even the existing films to 3D stereoscopic. India can tap this market in a big way, as this requires so called non-creative specialists with thinner budgets, feel experts.

Entering the Indian Game Zone
	Game on: Tracking Growth Segment Revenue (in Rs crore) FY 08 Revenue (in Rs crore) FY 07 Growth (%) Mobile 200 105 60 Console 68 60 20 PC Gaming 34 26 10 Online 33 24 10 Total 335 215
Source: DQ estimates
Mobile gaming ruled the roost, thanks to all service providers offering innovative games as part of their VAS strategy. Though Microsoft XBox did not fire up imagination as expected, console gaming still gained fair grounds. Most title developers however were still afflicted by the piracy demon

Another collaboration happened between Pritish Nandy Communications (PNC) and US-based Motion Pixel Corporation to produce five 3D animated features. The two companies have signed a deal worth $25 mn for the venture. Another leading film production house BR Films picked a majority stake in Mumbai-based animation firm Pix-n-Trix.

The great pace at which the fortunes of Indian animation shined, reflected in the new forays the Indian players made by acquiring studios abroad. Prime Focus Group acquired Post Logic Studios and Frantic Films VFX. Prime Focus already has six visual effects and post-production facilities across India and four facilities in London.

A lot happened on the outsourcing front too. Crest Animation, which primarily does most of the outsourced work, signed an agreement with Hollywoods film entertainment studio Lionsgate to co-produce three-movies: which movies will be computer generated imagery animated features. The first, Alpha and Omega is already under production on a budget of $25 mn. The animation for the entire movie will be created in-house at Crest Animation Studios, a Mumbai. Some of the outsourced projects VCL worked on included Iron Man and bits of Spiderman 3.

Games We Play
Its been an interesting ride for the Indian gaming industry too. In the last couple of years, the rate at which the industry has been growing only reflects that India does have a healthy gaming culture. The perception that India is anti-gaming seems to have completely tossed around.

Whether it was the entry of new players, content or market dynamics, the year had it all and much more. Primarily, gaming remained a youth driven market here with 44% of gamers in the age group of 15-19 years. The 20-30 years age group made up for 42% of the market while 14% was made up of the above 31 years age group.

Games are classified into four major segments on the basis of their access platform. These are wireless/mobile gaming, PC gaming, video console gaming, and online gaming (including MMOG). Some of the significant players in the Indian gaming space include Indiagames, Dhruva Interactive, and Paradox Studios. These essentially provide game development services in all the four segments. The other players, Zapak, Hungama, Mauj, and others are niche players in specific categories. Sixty percent of the gaming studios currently outsource. Following the same trend, the mobile gaming market had the maximum share of close to 60% in FY 08, up from 49% the playing year. Console gaming came next with 20%, followed by online and PC gaming, both at 10% each. The overall gaming market grew by an estimated 56%. Broadly, for the mobile gaming, the top 10 games comprised a good mix of cricket (predominant), Hollywood, and action-based games. On the online gaming front, the top 10 games were primarily a mix of casual, strategy, action, and sports based games.

At Indiagames, some of the key mobile gaming licenses that were won during the year included Rush Hour 3, Journey to the Centre of the Earth 3D, Flavor of Love, and BioShock.

Its Cricket 20:20 was another popular game on cricket, while some of their online PC games included Age of Empires, Brian Laras Cricket, Colin McRaes Rally, the Lara Croft Tomb Raider series, HitMan, and WarRock amongst others. Indiagames also launched its proprietary PLAY 3 platform-covering games across the three screens, which include mobile, PC-online and Interactive Television (DTH and IPTV). The first title launched on this platform was for the show Kya Aap Paanchvi Paas Se Tez Hain?

In what could be taken as a significant growth indicator for the sector, FXLabs partnered with Zapak and Sify to launch action packed PC game AGNI. The game is the first Bollywood starrer. Malaika Arora Khan in the brand avatar of the game. Yashraj Films too signed an agreement with Hyderabad-based FXLabs to develop a PC game based on the popular action thriller Dhoom 2. The action was completely on!

On the lighter side, Kreeda Games came up with a tie up with NDTV Imagines show Nachle Ve with Saroj Khan, for their online dancing game, danceMELA.

Relatively new players like Jump Games, had an interesting start. This mobile and online gaming player signed on some gaming licenses like Manchester United Football Club. Manchester United Word was their first global game release. Jump also signed on the cricket sensation Ishant Sharma and that game too gained popularity. Based on the animated feature, Hanuman Returns, it also worked on mobile games along with Percept Pictures.

Looking at the MMOGs in the casual gaming segment a Zapak planned to collaborate with Chinese partner for launching an MMOG in the casual gaming segment. Zapak.com along with the other gaming player Games2win.com also modeled around navigating through crowded city roads there are also games like Pig Blast and Sugandhiben P.A.A.D, which seem to be equally popular. Pig Blast involved rescuing a pig trapped in its pen by controlling the power of its air movements and in the latter game Sugandhibens farts are directed at terrorists to keep them at bay.

Interestingly, a lot of animation players too forayed into the gaming market. DQ Entertainment leveraged its strength in 3D animation to engage in game asset development. Following the creation of game assets for popular titles such as FIFA 07 and Medal of Honour produced by Electronic Arts, DQ Entertainment expanded its game production division to develop further game assets for Electronic Arts, Take 2 Interactive and Method Films. TATA Elxsi, too charted out its entry into the games business. It created a 30-member team for the games business, which included a team for development of mobile games in Pune and another one in Bangalore for console and PC Gaming.

Significantly, FXLabs Studios too entered into a definitive agreement to acquire IMT, a US-based company that owns one of the worlds largest online casual games portals, Knibble.com. IDG Ventures India and Bodhi Investment (managed by SoftBank China and India Holdings) also invested in Kreeda Games.

Though Indian gaming market currently, is not as great as the other Asian giants like China, Indonesia, or Korea, but it does seem to have secured a position as the next potential gaming hotspot.

Urvashi Kaul
urvashik@cybermedia.co.in

Page(s)   1  2