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Coming up in the next few days is a strategic acquisition of Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) by Reliance ADAG Group company and top player in the Indian gaming space, Zapak Digital Entertainment.
Sources familiar with the deal said Zapak is all set to acquire SOE for a whopping $300 million (Rs 1,200 crores). The deal, which has been brewing for the past two weeks or so, will be finalized in the next few days. Possibly by next week, Zapak will have full rights to all content owned and published by SOE.
The game- development and publishing- arm of Sony, California-based SOE, has come out with several games, including Everquest, PlanetSide, Star War Galaxies, and Vanguard.
Eighty percent of content in the gaming industry is created internationally. The acquisition makes sense for Zapak, which wants to cut costs by buying SOE studios, and relocating them to India. With a major part of gaming expenses being on content and marketing, Zapak hopes to cut costs from nearly $30 mn to just $10mn with the SOE buy-out.
Earlier on, Sony had signed a deal with ‘Virgin Comics’, a Bangalore-based collaboration between celebrated spiritual guru – Deepak Chopra, veteran film maker – Shekhar Kapur, and self-styled billionaire and head honcho of the Virgin Group – Sir Richard Branson.
By virtue of the acquisition, Zapak will gain control of all deals signed by SOE (past, present, and future).
Meanwhile, the latest IMRB statistics reveal that India has around 2.8 million online gamers, with the total worth of the online gaming industry being Rs 21 crores approximately.