Tech Shout!

India’s largest online gaming portal Zapak Digital Entertainment, has announced that it will rollout around 250 Zapak cafés known as ‘Gameplexes’ across India.

During the first phase, Zapak’s Gameplexes will be launched in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Pune, Delhi, Kolkatta and Chandigarh.

Some time ago, we had reported about the launch of the Zapak.com portal by Reliance which has over 300 games on offer to gamers. Thus, Zapak felt that launching a common ‘access’ point for gamers would be the next logical step to take.

Also, according to Zapak, gaming has not yet fully taken off in India solely due to low PC specification, poor Internet connectivity and limited content. Thus, the company felt that an organized approach was much needed.

Zapak hopes to promote the gaming business and develop a highly involved gamers’ community with the launch of such Gameplexes.

According to Rohit Sharma, COO, Zapak Digital Entertainment Limited, “At Zapak, we want to take charge of the complete gaming value chain. Shared access is the key driver for gaming in India and worldwide and the Zapak Gameplexes will act as a stimulant for that. They will provide the Indian consumer the best gaming experience, by giving them superb ambience, technical specification of the computers and high speed broadband connectivity, thus offering the players a never-before experience.”

There’s yet another reason for the conceptualization of gaming cafes by Zapak. According to an I Cube Report of 2006, around 62% of active Internet users in India’s top 26 cities access the Internet from cyber cafes. Now, as per an ‘Internet and Mobile Association’ report, if this trend continues to grow, online gaming in India will be able to contribute as much as 75% of the total revenue at a typical café.

“Currently there are roughly 140,000 cyber cafes in India out of which 97% falls into the unorganized category. Going by these statistics, organized gaming cafes have a good future in India. The introduction of Zapak Gameplexes will provide a fillip to organized gaming here,” Mr.Sharma explained.