Anil Ambani owned Reliance Games said that it is going to sell 10 per cent of stake in its subsidiary Zapak Mobile Games for $15 million to Chinese conglomerate Lead Eastern Group. The deal will value Zapak at $150 million and will gain a foothold in the gigantic Chinese market and will allow them to create and market their games globally.
The company is also forming a joint venture with Lead Eastern Investment along with Creative Cultural in China to create, operate and market mobile games based on intellectual properties owned and acquired by Zapak. The partnership will be 40 per cent, 51 per cent & 9 per cent respectively in the venture.
Reliance Group, group MD, Amitabh Jhunjhunwala said, “We are delighted to partner with Lead Group, and we believe this will accelerate the growth and reach of our gaming business in the China marketplace, along with continued expansion in the global markets. This partnership will enable both the companies to leverage their core competencies.”
Founded in 2006, Reliance Games develops and publishes games and has seen more than 200 million downloads across its popular titles like Real Steel, Pacific Rim, Hunger Games – Catching Fire Panem Run, Dancing with the Stars, Shadow Strike, among others.
Lead Eastern Investment, chairman, Chunfeng Wang said the strategic partnership between the two companies will enable them to expand extensively in China and global markets.
Lead Holding group has its hands dipped in business areas like real estate, tourism, finance and capital services, media & entertainment, gaming, logistics while its part Lead Eastern, is a listed entity does film, television, gaming content creation, broadcasting and distribution.
Creative Cultural, president and CEO, Corey Redmond, added “Our mission is to provide a gateway for Chinese game developers to use top Hollywood IP to develop enthralling mobile games.”
Creative Cultural brings new and innovative entertainment experiences to Chinese gamers and intended to continue to support the development of even more titles in China’s gaming industry.
China’s marketplace presents lucrative opportunities for global enterprises which have been tapped into earlier across various verticals of media and entertainment, but given the huge population potential many of these have lacked the vision of localizing their content for higher consumption propensity. With diverse gaming mediums available in the country now due to recent resurgence of consoles after a 15 year hiatus, revenues through gaming in the country is expected to surpass revenues of US gaming industry by 2018 according to a report from Newzoo.
Even developers like Rovio with its hit Angry Bird franchise has been tweaking its content in the country to woo local gamers, which has resulted in half a million downloads for its latest game Angry Birds 2; even Clash of Clan makers – SuperCell has adapted to the sensibilities local content and accordingly brought about changes to its game to rise in the top grossing charts.
