Aimed at capitalising on the popularity of cricket, Nazara Games has entered into a partnership with Stick Sports to develop a game featuring Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma.
Nazara has an exclusive mobile gaming deal with Cornerstone Sport (the agency which has the digital and gaming rights for the Indian cricket stars) to develop mobile games.
The game is expected to be launched in October.
“Given the high level of interest in cricket, we hope that the new game will have at least two-three million downloads a month. We are looking at more such strategic tie-ups with other players,” Manish Agarwal, CEO, Nazara Games, told
Stick Sports has launched five previous cricket titles on mobile, all of which have high rate of adoption in cricket playing nations. In this game, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma get together to break apart every bowling line up in the world.
The player must play to each batsmen’s strength, using their unique skills and abilities to help create an everlasting partnership.
In addition to publishing games on app stores, Nazara also operates a game subscription service — Games Club, in 44 countries.
According to an ‘Indian Games Market Review' report by Nasscom, mobile gaming revenues are currently estimated at $150 million across all revenue models. Nasscom said that increasing number of smart-phone users are fuelling the mobile gaming market in India with around 40-50 million people playing games on their smart-phones and feature phones.
Agarwal said the company will continue to partner with high quality developers and publish games leveraging massively popular Indian intellectual properties.
He said it had previously created IPs around kids with Chhota Bheem.
Agarwal claimed that Nazara Games has hit topspot in games in the top free charts of Google Play Store multiple times in the past six months with Chhota Bheem games rated ahead of Candy Crush, Temple Run and Subway Surfer — some of the most popular global games in India.
Paul Collins, CEO, Stick Sports, in a statement said: “We are very excited to include Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma in this new version of Stick Cricket. Their unique playing style will be dynamic, ensuring the game will be a sure fire hit with existing and new users around the globe.”