RELIANCE GAMES, Reliance Big Entertainment Pvt. Ltd’s international mobile gaming business, in a bid to expand its global presence has made a strategic entry into the key gaming destinations in the world – Japan and Korea. The company has recently acquired a mobile game development and publishing company in Japan and a mobile game development studio in Korea.
In November 2012, Reliance Games consolidated its gaming business under the Zapak brand name as Zapak Mobile Games. In May 2012, Reliance Home Video and Games had partnered with Japanese game developer – Namco Bandai to distribute and promote their movie based games in India.
Acquisition in Japan: In Tokyo, Japan, Reliance Big Entertainment Pvt. Ltd has through its subsidiary Reliance Big Entertainment Japan Co. Ltd. fully acquired the gaming division of Funnel Japan along with its team and all the IPs under development and has created Reliance Games Japan. The company in Japan will be responsible for development & publishing of games for the local market.
Acquisition in Korea: In Busan, Korea, Reliance Big Entertainment Japan Co. Ltd has bought a majority stake of 51% in the gaming studio Bluesom Inc. As a part of the deal, the company has also acquired a few IPs.
Eric Marlow, Vice President of Global Studios, Reliance Games said, “The Company’s expansion into the Japanese and Korean markets is significant and strategic. We see now a clear path that allows us product and development capacity in both countries. We are extremely excited by the new capabilities added to our team and we think our customers will enjoy the games we are preparing for them.”
The company has brought on board Hwa Seok Choi in the role of Chief Revenue Officer for Reliance Games Japan. Commenting on his new role, he said, “It is a great opportunity to be a part of Reliance Games’ global expansion strategy. I am looking forward to the successful games that we will bring to the mobile gaming markets in times to come.”
On partnering with the Reliance Group, Hojin Song, CEO of Bluesom Inc. said, “It’s a pleasure to partner Reliance Games in its phase of expanding global presence. I am certain that together we will be able to effectively cater to the mobile gaming markets globally.”
Reliance Games will be launching 3 games in the ‘social card game’ and ‘real time strategy game’ categories, on feature phones and smart devices in the next 3 quarters in Japan and Korea. Apart from these new games Reliance Games will also be launching its Hollywood IP based games localized for these markets.
Manish Agarwal, CEO, Reliance Entertainment Digital has over 15 years of industry experience, with six years dedicated to the digital industry. His expertise in the digital space ranges across consumer marketing, product development, developer evangelism and digital monetization.
Prior to Reliance Entertainment Digital, he has been a part of some of the leading corporations in the technology and media sector such as Microsoft, Rediff, Infosys and UTV.
Later, he spent a year at Microsoft as the Director of Marketing and with a rich consumer understanding of the industry, he moved to UTV taking over the responsibility of CEO – New Media Venture Ltd.
A self-confessed voracious reader, Manish’s strength is his ability to completely get in sync with any current digital trend and mould it towards the betterment of his business. He is a passionate for all things related to technology and gadgets.
In an exclusive interview with Animationxpress.com’s Ishpreet Chandock, Manish Agarwal CEO, Reliance Entertainment Digital gives us an insight on the acquisition.
Here are the excerpts…
Can you give us details about the acquisition?
Reliance Games, after the success of Real Steel & F1 2011 mobile games globally, has embarked on a journey of expanding its business beyond North America markets. With this acquisition in Japan & Korea Reliance Games has made inroads into the world’s largest mobile gaming markets and looks forward to tap the 5.5 Bln USD & 1.3 Bln USD mobile gaming markets of Japan & Korea respectively. While Funnel Japan is a game distribution company with around 10 people, Bluesom is games studio with around 35 employees.
What was the core reason for targeting the Japanese and Korean markets?
Investment in the development studio at Busan, Korea and in the distribution team at Tokyo, Japan will enable us to develop games for local markets instead of trying to force fit western games in these markets. This is the 3rd largest market for games in the world I have full confidence on teams at Korea and Japan to establish Reliance Games as a very innovative and successful gaming brand. It is a revolving space and we look forward to put a strong foot in these markets. The idea is to learn the market situation, the opinions, choices and preferences of the users in Japan and Korea and then take it forward from there.We would like to target on the Asian freemium market with this deal. Both acquisitions are carried out by a new company created for this purpose, Reliance Big Entertainment Japan Co., which is completely owned by Reliance Games.
When did you first approach them and when did the deal come into fruition?
The discussions started back in November last year, which took around two months, and they finally agreed to the deal in January. The paper work and necessary details took a couple of months. We paid a few million dollars “in lower single digit” for the two deals.
What are your targets? Long term and short term?
With this acquisition, we at Reliance Games will like to develop localised games for the markets of Japan and Korea in the short run. We have 4 titles in the pipeline currently. We would like to experiment in these markets and focus on the execution of our plans. Bluesom will be responsible for developing games and Funnel will be responsible for distributing these games. In the long run, the company plans to make their Japanese and Korean operations also responsible for the R&D of multi-player mobile games for the western markets.
What are the IP’s you have acquired with the deal?
We have acquired 2 IP’s from the deal, one is from the mobile game development studio in Japan and we have also acquired the IP for Special Force, which is a very popular and successful game in Korea.
What are the other territories in the gaming industry you would like to target in the future?
Reliance Games has four primary territories which it likes to target, they are; North America, Japan- Korea and we would like to expand our operations further in China and Taiwan. India being our home front is our priority too, however, the Indian market is split between the android market and Smartphone market. Our main aim is to explore and utilize the local content. We aim to acquire the local IPs, which we have such as Chota Bheem, Shaktiman, ICC cricket and more. We would like to bring a differentiation in the local market by acquiring the local content.
What else can we expect from you in 2013?
We would be coming up with 10-15 titles for the android market and around 15- 20 games for the other Smartphone’s. We are planning to launch 3 games in the categories of social card game and real time strategy game within the next three quarters. These games will be launched on feature and smart phones in the local markets of Japan and Korea. Depending on the popularity and success of these games, they will be launched in Taiwan and China, The Company also plans to customize some of the Hollywood Intellectual Properties like Real Steel to suit the markets of Japan and Korea. In the next 6-12 months, Reliance Games plans to enter the publishing space as well.
Earlier, Reliance Games has created mobile games for Real Steel, Total Recall, F1 2011, Mirror Mirror, Electric City, etc. It works with brands including Codemasters, GLU, Turner, Warner Bros, Playboy, 24Mas, Nokia, Samsung, etc.