Sony taps into gaming in India

Seeing a huge potential market in young people in India, Sony Online Entertainment plans to develop online games in Mumbai with local content and a local partner. The company is talking to developers and aims to set up the studio early next year, likely in the city of Bangalore, David Christensen, the company's business development and international operations vice president, said last week. "We need to have Indian content for our games, and we are looking for local partners," Christensen said in Mumbai, India's finance and entertainment hub. Sony recently linked up with Virgin Comics, a Bangalore-based collaboration by self-help guru Deepak Chopra, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur and Virgin Group's Sir Richard Branson. With Sony, Virgin is developing a multiplayer online game based on "Ramayan 3329," a comic book written by Chopra and Kapur and inspired by a famous Indian epic about a battle against demons. Online gaming is just catching on in India with about 2.8 million devotees.