Mumbai based underDOGS Gaming announced that the digital platforms firm Intelli Reboot Digital has acquired stakes for an undisclosed amount in the studio. The studio was founded in 2011 and since has worked on over 90 games.
“Reboot and underDOGS Gaming are believers and understand that there is a wide opportunity available for the growth of mobile gaming in India. underDOGS brings to Reboot a strong team that understands the complexities of delivering world class commercially successful products,” said underDOGS, founder, Vaibhav Chavan, in a press statement.
Speaking exclusively to AnimationXpress.com, Vaibhav further states that the team has moved to a bigger office and is on hiring drive. The team of 4 is now a 10 member strong studio and Vaibhav states that the company is still recruiting people with an aim to expand the team to 15 to 20 people in the next three months.
The studio is not only expanding in the human resource department but also will be publishing their games on Samsung’s Tizen platform. The team is also headed for Baidu’s store Mobojoy which will feature all their games on the platform. “We have also ventured with Worldoo for a year for creating original content which is going to be published not only on Worldoo platform but also on Android and iOS platforms,” states Vaibhav.
In March 2014, it got incubated at the Zone Startup India accelerator by Ryerson Futures.
In respect to expansion of UnderDOGS he quotes “Over the years we will also be seen joining hands with a leading content house to generate some games for various brands and movies”. Together the alliance has bagged several path breaking deals for the coming season.
Right at the onset is one of the major players, Disney whose market for mobile gaming sector is fresh and fluid starting with one movie game this year. UnderDOGS, is going to generate IP based games catering to consumers as well as corporates.
In the past, the 5 year old underDOGS Gaming has developed leading gaming titles such as Skatelander, Parking Evolution 3D and Smash Rider among others and has also been providing backend support to companies like Zapak, Games2win, Hungama, Disney Indiagames, Idealabs, Zee TV, and 9XM with products such as Jodha Akbar, Silly Chicken, and BCL.
Apart from this, the company is currently working on a few games first of which is a vehicle simulator titled Ultimate Parking Simulator which should be out in a few days and then Vaibhav states that the company will start working on few of client based games and three new IPs which should be out within this year.
The gaming industry has seen growth in leaps and boundaries and more and more channels are coming with their own gaming sectors. According to a recent NASSCOM IGDA study, revenue from casual gaming in India will quadruple by 2016 to more than $250 million. The Indian gaming industry is close to $890 million and there are about 100 odd game developing firms in the country.
On the other hand, Intelli Reboot Digital was established earlier this year looking at strategic digital investments.
“Through this acquisition, Reboot will strengthen its already robust digital portfolio to become a prominent player in the gaming space focused on building gaming experiences for the global market including corporate and celebrity games and enabling games to monetise effectively”, Intelli Reboot Digital, founder, Sameer Mahuli.
