Zapak Presents the First-ever National Gaming Tournament | 07 March 2008
Zapak Digital Entertainment Limited, is organizing ‘Zapak Gameplex Battlefield’ - first-ever National Gaming Tournament. The tournament will sponsored by Logitech. The co-sponsorers are Wipro Morpheus and Mahindra Renault LOGAN and the media partner for the tournament is AXN. This tournament will be held in 11 cities across India at Zapak Gameplex (location details given at end of release). The tournament is being conducted from 7th March to 30th March 2008 on weekends.
Zapak Gameplex Championship gives an opportunity to gamers to match their skills against other gaming experts across India. This tournament will be played in a knock-out game format, which will give the players a better and fairer chance to show their gaming skills. In the knock-out game format, the Championship has world famous games such as Counter Strike 1.6, Flatout 2 and FIFA07. While the first person shootout game Counter Strike requires a team of 5 for registration, FIFA07 and Flatout2 are games for individuals. Participation is open for everyone, irrespective of age.
Mr. Rohit Sharma, COO, Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd., said “Gaming thrives on competitions and what better way to nurture competitions than through Championships. This has been the key reason behind creating and hosting ‘Zapak Gameplex Battlefield’. However unlike other gaming championships, ‘Zapak Gameplex Battlefield’ will be National Championship operating from regional grounds rather than focusing only on metros; after which we will escalate this to a national level. Our aim is to give equal opportunity to all gamers across India.”
Says Mr Subrotah Biswas, Country Manager, India & SAARC, Logitech, “Logitech's wide variety of gaming peripherals (or gaming ammunition as we call it) is targeted at the growing gaming population of India. Participating in the Logitech Presents Gameplex Battlefield Tournament March 2008 gives us a huge opportunity to get gamers experience our latest products that are designed by gamers themselves. Interchangeable grips, adjustable weights and many other innovations accompany our products. There's truly no other way for a gamer to enjoy the high of competitive gaming. Fantastic games and the best artillery- Gameplex promises to be gamers' paradise."
On being media partners for this championship, the AXN Spokesperson said, “Gaming has become a passion for the youth in our country, like never before. Zapak is today the most successful name in this space and we at AXN see a significant connect for both these brands. Therefore we collectively decided to create this property ‘Zapak Gameplex Battlefield’ which would help both brands connect with their common TG, who are always on the lookout for thrills, chills and lots of action. This makes our association with Zapak as the media partners for this gaming tournament, perfect.”
“We are very excited to partner with Zapak for the Gameplex Championship. The Indian gaming market is set for exponential growth and Zapak has taken an aggressive lead in capturing this segment early. Wipro Morpheus, our range of high end gaming PCs meets the hardware requirements of the gamers from price, quality, and support standpoint while Zapak presents the most challenging games. Together, this is a win-win combo with all the ingredients of success in place.” Ashutosh Vaidya, Vice President, Wipro Personal Computing Division, Wipro Limited.
Zapak is offering prizes worth above 11 lakh rupees. Prizes worth Rs. 19,000 are up for grabs every week in cash and game time, with the winning team in Counterstrike bagging Rs. 7,000 and the FIFA 07 winner pockets Rs. 3,500. The winner in Flat Out takes home Rs. 3,500.The fun and excitement continues every Saturday until March 30th. Come be a part of the action!!!
About Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd.:
ZDEL is India’s largest and most preferred gaming destination, providing the most comprehensive mix of gaming content and services. Zapak has created India’s largest gaming portal by offering engaging and compelling products & services. The company plans to revolutionize the way entertainment is consumed in India by creating a gaming culture.
The gaming culture is being further seeded by enabling retail access points for customers to consume gaming experiences, with PC as the platform.
Zapak To Launch Chinese Site | 04 January 2008
Plans are afoot to "step into the Chinese online casual gaming market with a Chinese website," Zapak COO Rohit Sharma tells exchange4media. For their MMOG, in partnership with a Chinese firm, they won't be looking at a subscription based model as speculated but rather use 'item based sales', which means selling virtual goods and gameplay inventory. Taking stock of the year gone by, Sharma claimed that the portal has more than 4 million registered users and more than 10 million page views; over 100 brands aboard (really?) on the gaming site. In-game advertising and advergaming contributed to 25-30 per cent of the company's revenues, and this is expected to grow to reach 50 per cent of the total revenues by this fiscal end. More at e4m.
There are also plans to expand Zapak Gameplexes to more than 150 by 2008. Great focus and BIG plans, but we wonder if they expect to break even anytime soon. Zapak mail, Zapak.tv and Zapak Tiny have been relatively low key and some of the properties have been merely marketing fluff riding off mostly on homepage traffic mileage.
Zapak Launches Calender featuring 'gorgeous' women in Gaming Avatar
Online gaming portal Zapak.com has launched ZapakGirls Calendar 2008 that features 12 ‘gorgeous’ women in gaming avatars. For instance, while Malaika Arora Khan appears in the avatar of a Neon Angel and Jesse Randhawa the Ice Queen, Mridula Chandrashekhar has donned the Temple Warrior avatar.
Rohit Sharma, COO, Zapak Digital Entertainment, has said, “In less than a year, Zapak has attained a whooping 4 million registered users and has created the largest success story in the internet space in 2007. Zapak has been known to introduce innovative products and the first of its kind in the market.”
“The Gaming Avatar collection, the first of its kind in the gaming industry, globally is another first from Zapak. For the first time we thought of giving women an action avatar and bringing fashion and gaming to a common platform. To celebrate our 1st year success we are introducing this calendar. The avatar collection showcased in the calendar will be used in the games for Zapak,” Rohit Sharma has added.
Reliance Launches Online Gaming Portal: Zapak | 27 November 2006
The Reliance ADA group has launched its online casual gaming portal, Zapak.com, with an initial line up of 150 casual games, most of which are exclusive to the site. The portal also offers celebrity based games, international titles in single player and multiplayer formats, free of charge.
Zapak offers games across genres such as Action, Racing, Puzzles, strategy and sports in the single player category, while cricket, chess and Soduku war are some of the multiplayer games in roster. The portal also has a 'Score Capture' facility, to compare scores and initiate contests online. The portal is in talks with gaming companies in China, Korea, and the US for licensing their content, especially in the Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) category.
Zapak is looking to initially consolidate its position as a popular gaming portal, and eventually roll out exclusive gaming cafes Zapak Zones.Reliance ADA group has plans to invest $100 million over the next three years in people, technology, content, and distribution. Sudipto Majumdar, chief technology officer of Zapak said, "We have set-up operations of the portal on 100 servers and can today support upto six million users. We intend to increase the number to 1000 servers in the next three years. Our biggest strength has been the fact that we have developed the games platform, user management systems and other applications in-house. This will help us provide instant and comprehensive support to the portal at all times."
According to Reliance ADA group, the online gaming market in India is expected to grow to USD 200 million by 2009.