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Hindu Leader Calling For Sony Boycott

Will Prusik — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:14:16 +0000

With the exception of the Grand Theft Auto series it seems that usually whatever game is raising the most hackles is generally pretty poorly made. Manhunt 2 stirred whole anthills of controversy before it was released followed by a poor performance in terms of both sales and critical acclaim. Most recently Hindus took offense to Hanuman: Boy Warrior, the first game developed entirely by an Indian studio. In it you control Hanuman, one of the deities of the Hindu religion.

As you might imagine Hindu leaders weren’t happy about this and after voicing their displeasure to the folks at Sony sought to get the game recalled from shelves. Sony of course wasn’t interested in recalling a game aimed at a single market because a subsection of people in that market objected to it. Sony finally made it clear to the Hindu leaders that they really had no desire to comply with their demands.

The Hindu leaders have called for a worldwide boycott of Sony products as they had threatened to previously. The overall impact of such a boycott is unknown and it could potentially be terrible given the large Indian market. Yet I somehow doubt that it will be more than a blip on the radar, since there’s probably not much overlap between conservative Hindus and gamers.

N-Gage service hits India

Gibran Nawaz — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 02:55:58 +0000

Nokia has finally launched service of the N-Gage in India. The handheld mobile gaming service currently boasts a healthy library of a 30 games, including titles such as Tetris, Metal Gear Solid Mobile, and Resident Evil: Degeneration.

The service is not to be confused with the first generation taco phones. N-Gage is now only a service for Nokia’s line of smartphone devices.

Read (TechWhack)

New ‘Low Cost Console’ Announced For Emerging Markets

Will Prusik — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:57:34 +0000

Part of the reason the Wii sells so well is its low price tag. This makes it especially popular for countries where luxuries such as electronics are far more expensive. At the Game Developers Conference Qualcomm unveiled their own console offering that they hope will be able to corner the market on games in Brazil, Russia, India and China.

It’s called the Zeebo and it launches in Brazil in Early May/June 2009. The system is powered by Mobile chips so you can’t expect anything up to modern standards, but what the console lacks in processing power it makes up for in the sheer number of games. The console will have substantial third party support with over six hundred games being bundled in along with the inexpensive system, retailing at $199. There will be more games available via download, with thirty available at the launch and more to come.

The appeal they hope is that the cost of their games is very little more than the cost of pirated titles. Unfortunately outdated titles like Tekken 2, Quake (yes the original) and others aren’t very likely to beat out the appeal of shinier, flashier modern titles.

India Won’t See Fallout 3

Jeff Baker — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:54:17 +0000

Microsoft has recently given an official statement that due to “cultural sensitivities” Bethesda’s highly anticipated Fall Out 3 will not be making it’s way to Indian shelves at all as there was never an Indian PS3 or PC version in existence.

GamingIndians published the following statement from Microsoft:

Microsoft constantly endeavors to bring the best games to Indian consumers in sync with their international release. However, in light of cultural sensitivities in India, we have made the business decision to not bring Fallout 3 into the country.

It looks like importers have some work cut out for them!
Read(GamingIndians)

Sony Increasing Development Effort in India

Rajiv Ashrafi — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 20:38:40 +0000

Hoping to cut game development costs, Sony Computer Entertainment has announced plans to strengthen its development efforts in India, a destination preferred for outsourced labor. The initiative will break even in three years and lead to a dedicated Indian development facility if the plan is successful, according to SCE country manager Atindriya Bose.

Sony will be coaching local programmers in game development and loaning out development hardware. Four Indian developers have been tasked with five project sso far, with Sony hoping the effort will help lower game costs.