Nazara Technologies today announced a minority investment in InstaSportz Consultancy, a Bangalore based VR gaming company. With this move, Nazara proposes to enter the offline gaming space to offer interactive entertainment via VR lounges in Tier one and two cities across India.
Instasportz is an established startup in offline VR gaming space with the vision of making millions of Indians experience the latest innovations in VR gaming thru their VR gaming kiosks called Instazones. InstaSportz has partnered with Carnival cinemas to set up VR zones/Instazones at their theaters.
Instazone is a VR lounge that requires under 100 sq ft of space and is set up at premium spots inside malls, multiplexes etc. which offers customers a VR experience at an affordable price point. Instasportz is currently present in Kota, City Mall Ludhiana, Silver Arc Mall, Calicut, HiLite Mall, Bangalore, Xtreme Sports Bar, Bangalore and many more are in the pipeline. They intend to be live in over 100 towns in the coming years.
According to InstaSportz founders Bigith Nambiar and KR Rahul “We aim to own the largest network of VR lounges across India and other emerging markets globally. We believe that Nazara will help us in expanding our presence through strategic local partnerships. We intend to keep working on getting the innovative VR products at our Instazones so that our customers get nothing but the best VR gaming experience at an affordable price point.
With gaming becoming mainstream in India and other emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Middle East, Nazara Technologies CEO Manish Agarwal says “At Nazara, we wish to offer interactive entertainment that blends sports, virtual reality, and arcade gaming thus offering an immersive gaming experience across all age groups. With this investment in Instasportz, we are pushing ourselves to offer gaming lead entertainment to the gamers across various touch points and aim to give them a chance to experience the virtual reality games at the Instazones and continue the thrill of gaming on their mobile phones once they head back home.”
With Nazara’s investment in InstaSportz, the company seeks to strengthen its portfolio of offerings in the virtual interactive sports genre in India and other emerging markets. The InstaSportz acquisition comes after Nazara’s investments in MasterMind Sports, Moong Labs, HalaPlay, CrimzonCode and more recently, Nazara has extended its operations in Kenya, through a local Kenya based company to tap the real money gaming market.