Going by the current trend, and as a part of the digital promotion campaign, YRF recently released a trailer of the game for their upcoming movie, ‘Sultan’ starring bollywood stalwarts Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma. Developed by Udupi based mobile-gaming studio, 99Games, the action based game takes one into the heart of the wrestling arena, where you play your opponent as ‘Sultan’ or Salman Khan himself. Players can upgrade their fighting skills and top the leaderboard.
AnimationXpress got in touch with 99Games, AVP operations, Anila Andrade to get an insight about the development of this movie based game. When asked about the overall idea of the game and how it compliments the characters from the film, Andrade asserted , “The movie Sultan is a classic underdog tale about a wrestler’s journey, looking for a comeback by defeating all odds staked up against him. He has nothing to lose and everything to gain in this fight for his life match… Sultan must literally fight for his life. Sultan: The Game follows a similar footprint. Players have to fight their way through, across 60 levels of in-ring action filled combats.”
According to Andrade, the project for Sultan came to them, while they were still working on FAN:The Game,based on Shahrukh Khan starrer, FAN. It took them an average time of six months and a team of eight people, including the production and marketing team to conceptualise, design and bring the Sultan game to life as its release is scheduled on 10 June, 2016.
The game will be adhering a freemium model, meaning, the game will be free to download and play. However, players can make in app purchases to upgrade their fighting skills. Apart from in app revenues that have been planned, the studio has partnered with multiple advertising network partners although Andrade confirmed that, “Ads are strategically shown so as to not disrupt player experience”. They have plans to support the game depending on consumer demands.
It also seems like, the studio has quite some plans for promoting their game. “We’re running a joint PR with YRF Studios announcing the launch. We will also be running digital and non-digital promotions in collaboration with YRF. Salman Khan and team have shown their support and have shared the trailer on his social media channels. Several in-game contests have been planned with real time gratifications including a ‘Meet and Greet with Salman Khan’.”
While a film and a game based on that have become quite a trend in the industry right now, it is not only the production company that benefits from it by extending its audience base, but the studio earns quite good revenues from its IP. As the game is based on a movie, it practically promotes itself as a part of film promotion. When asked if it is mutually beneficial for the production company and the studio, Andrade said, “For the film producers, games are a massive opportunity to engage with their consumers directly albeit on a different platform and also helps extend their audience base. For the studio, a strategic partnership with a movie house which has a strong IP helps solve the problem of discoverability. A game with a good business model monetises well. Hence a win-win for both the the studio and the film producers.”
Sultan: The Game releases tomorrow and we have to wait and watch on how the audience receives the game, as Salman Khan has an immense fan following and 99Games have been quite a player in this genre.