RuneScape Launches in India
Mumbai, 8th October, 2009 – Zapak launches RuneScape, the world's most popular free MMOG (Massively Multiplayer Online Game).
Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd, India’s largest online gaming company, in association with Jagex Games Studio, brings the world’s most popular free MMO game, RuneScape, to India. Zapak will be the exclusive marketing and distribution partner for RuneScape in India. The game was launched by Rob Smith, Jagex’s Chief Operating Officer and Bollywood’s Aftab Shivdasani.
RuneScape has been played by over 150 million gamers worldwide since it was first launched in 2001, making it the most successful browser-based game in history. RuneScape is enjoyed by millions of players each month, and it is updated regularly with new content, quests, skills or events, which means there are always new challenges to face whenever players log on.
RuneScape is free-to-play, with a large expansion for paying members. The free content offers thousands of hours of game play to enjoy and, for even more adventure, there is premium content that offers exclusive members-only quests, skills, minigames, and areas to explore.
“RuneScape has been developed to appeal to multiple demographics and it will make its mark in India. India is an important market for us and who better than Zapak, the top gaming company in India, to partner with to launch the game here?” said Rob Smith, Chief Operating Officer, Jagex Games Studio.
Commenting on the launch, Mr. Rohit Sharma, COO, Zapak Digital Entertainment Limited said “Runescape is among the top online games in the world. With millions of users a month, it is the world’s second largest MMOG. We are very excited to exclusively launch this game in India. This is in line with Zapak’s continuous endeavour to provide the Indian consumer with world class gaming content.”
About Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd
Zapak is India’s largest gaming company that addresses the complete value chain for online gaming. With currently over 6.5 million registered gamers, Zapak.com is not only the largest casual gaming sites in the country, but is among the top gaming sites in the world. Zapak Gameplexes are the first of their kind, large-format dedicated gaming cafes with high-speed broadband and high-end PCs. There are 70 Gameplexes present in 35 cities all across India to provide the Indian gamer with world-class shared access. There will be about 500 Gameplexes all across the country in a year’s time.
Zapak Games, the licensing and merchandising arm of Zapak, has created one of India’s largest retail distribution networks, with presence in over 4000 retail outlets across 50 cities throughout India. Zapak Games has successfully distributed a lot of movie merchandise such as Bhootnath, Love Story 2050, Hari Puttar, Rock On and Drona. It has also launched merchandise around a popular TV animation called Bakugan. Zapak also plans to bring India some of the world’s best MMOG titles by internationally renowned developers. There are plans to introduce at least 5-6 MMOGs with 2 titles to be launched this year. The first title in the series being ‘Crazy Kart’ in association with Shanda Interactive Entertainment Ltd. was launched in September 2008. Zapak Live is the BTL arm of Zapak that does a large number of tournaments, championships, events and conferences around the gaming space.
Zapak Digital Entertainment Limited has started a gaming revolution in India. This gaming destination is now a buzzword among gamers (Newest Buzz Awards, 2008), reaching them across all possible touch points. At the Asia Brand Congress 2007 and then again in 2008, under the category of Brand leadership in India, Zapak won the award for Internet Business.
About Jagex Games Studio
Jagex Games Studio is a world-leading developer of high quality, browser-based games and is the largest independent games developer and publisher in the UK, with some 400 staff across two studios in Cambridge, England.
Built almost exclusively on Jagex’s own proprietary technologies; Jagex has proved its effectiveness with its popular browser-based game, RuneScape, currently the world’s most popular free-to-play MMO, and FunOrb, Jagex’s captivating browser games website.