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Tag: Epic Games

  • Reliance teams up with Blast to storm India’s booming esports arena

    Reliance teams up with Blast to storm India’s booming esports arena

    MUMBAI: Reliance Industries’ wholly-owned subsidiary Rise Worldwide has joined forces with European esports powerhouse Blast to form a joint venture that aims to revolutionise India’s nascent but rapidly expanding competitive gaming landscape.

    The partnership will leverage Blast’s tournament expertise and publisher relationships to bring global esports properties to Indian shores while developing bespoke competitions for the local market—a digital playground that already boasts a staggering 600 million gamers, representing 18 per cent of the world’s button-bashers.
    India’s gaming market, currently valued at $3.8bn, is projected to rocket to $9.2bn by 2029, growing at a blistering 19 per cent annually. Meanwhile, the global esports market is expected to surge from $2.8bn to $16.7bn by 2033, suggesting there are digital gold mines yet to be excavated.

    “India is one of the most exciting and fastest-growing gaming markets in the world,” said Blast chief executive Robbie Douek, whose company currently works with gaming titans including Epic Games, Valve, Riot Games, Krafton and Ubisoft across popular titles with a combined monthly player base exceeding 350 million.

    The new venture will capitalise on Blast’s production prowess and intellectual property portfolio while tapping into Jio’s technological muscle and distribution network via the JioGames platform. Services will span tournament management, targeted marketing, production and broadcasting—essentially creating a full-service esports juggernaut.

    “With this partnership, Indian esports will be able to realise its full potential,” said Reliance Sports  head Devang Bhimjyani.

    The timing appears impeccable, as the Indian government recently granted official recognition to esports by declaring it part of the “multi-sports event” category, providing legitimacy to a pursuit once dismissed as mere child’s play.

    Blast, known for producing tournaments that fill arenas and generate billions of views across 150+ territories, will now bring its show-stopping production values to a country where cricket has traditionally dominated sporting consciousness. With planned arena stops in global cities like London, Singapore, Austin and Rio in 2025, the addition of Indian venues seems a natural next step in the company’s expansion strategy.

    For India’s growing army of competitive gamers, the partnership offers tantalising prospects: international exposure, improved tournament infrastructure, and potentially, a shot at the multi-million dollar prize pools that have transformed gaming nerds into millionaire celebrities elsewhere in the world.

  • Epic Games, WPP partner to accelerate innovation for clients in the metaverse

    Epic Games, WPP partner to accelerate innovation for clients in the metaverse

    MUMBAI: WPP and Fortnite developer Epic Games on Thursday announced a new partnership to deliver a new era of digital experiences for brands in the metaverse, according to a press statement.

    The partnership will include a new training program to upskill thousands of WPP creatives and technologists on how to create custom brand experiences in Fortnite, and how to use Unreal Engine for real-time 3D creation and virtual production. “This new metaverse curriculum will consist of three separate tracks for executives, creative practitioners, and media experts and strategists,” said the statement.  

    “Early to invest in the tools and talent needed to succeed in the metaverse, WPP believes that brands and creators have a tremendous opportunity to meet the need for connection and unlock unlimited creative potential within interactive virtual spaces. For brands embarking on this journey, success in the metaverse is dependent not only on creative excellence but deep production capabilities, sound strategies for amplifying digital experiences and expert knowledge of a complex online safety and privacy landscape,” it said.

    As a part of this partnership, WPP teams will work closely with experts at Epic to learn how to build next-generation interactive experiences leveraging Unreal Engine, an advanced real-time 3D creation tool used across a range of industries including games, film, architecture, fashion, automotive, music and live events.

    WPP teams will be able to take advantage of training and tools to create new experiences in Fortnite, where creators can build imaginative worlds for brands inside of one of the most globally popular online games.

    Earlier, WPP has collaborated with SuperAwesome, an Epic Games company, to produce innovative work such as the immersive Island built for Adidas in Fortnite for its Ozweego sneaker line.

    WPP will also work with SuperAwesome to deepen its understanding of online safety and privacy to help its campaigns engage younger audiences safely.

    WPP executive VP strategic partnerships Nilufar Fowler said, “We think of WPP as the creative transformation company, one that embraces new environments like the metaverse and sees the potential for clients. Epic’s technology is world-class, and we are delighted to partner with it to raise the bar for social experiences in virtual worlds on behalf of our clients.”

    Epic Games VP Metaverse development Matthew Henick said, “The collaboration between Epic, WPP, its clients and the creator community will accelerate the building of diverse social entertainment experiences that players across the world will love. This partnership with WPP bolsters our mission to educate more trailblazing brands and creators on how Epic’s tools across Fortnite, Unreal Engine, and 3D marketplaces like ArtStation and Sketchfab can be used to bring their metaverse visions to life.”

    This partnership follows WPP’s recent announcement of The Metaverse Foundry, a new global metaverse offering through Hogarth, its specialist creative content production company.

  • Eros International enters into a strategic collaboration with Epic Games

    Eros International enters into a strategic collaboration with Epic Games

    MUMBAI: Eros International has entered into a strategic collaboration with EpicGames related to Eros’s use of Epic’s Unreal Engine across the production slate, paving the way for real-time technology throughout Indian entertainment. Epic Games are also creators of one of the biggest games in the world ‘Fortnite’.

    The use of Unreal Engine will help in accelerating production efficiencies using real-timerendering technology, eliminating physical production restrictions on set during shoot andpostproduction. The collaboration will assist Eros in pushing the envelope of high-quality pre-visualization, virtual production, and in-camera visual effects that take the post out of production. Additionally, the strategic human resource investment into the collaboration will result in support for the growth and development of Eros's talent pool.

    Traditionally used in games, Unreal Engine is ushering in a new era of storytelling across media, becoming integral in the production of episodic animation, live-action blockbusters, and short- form content, and more. The advanced real-time rendering capability of Unreal Engine provides filmmakers with the power to optimize their production pipelines, receive immediate feedback on their work, and make changes to visual assets.

    Commenting on the alliance, Eros Group chief content officer Ridhima Lulla said, “We are extremely excited to collaborate with Epic games to further popularize real-time production to India through Unreal Engine. Eros is innovative by nature, and with Unreal Engine, we can bring in better cost efficiency for all our film and television projects across the globe.”

    “As key figures in Bollywood production, we are excited to support Eros as they help to spearhead virtual production in India,” said Quentin Staes-Pole, GM SEA/India at Epic Games. “Real-time technology presents a huge opportunity to transform storytelling and the art of filmmaking for creators around the world, enabling new creative horizons and lifting quality, while reducing costs and time to market.”

    Eros recently received an Epic MegaGrant, which will be utilized to fund an array of projects currently under development, broadening efforts to take Indian stories worldwide.

  • NASSCOM Game Developer Conference 2015 speaker schedule announced

    NASSCOM Game Developer Conference 2015 speaker schedule announced

    NEW DELHI: The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM) announced the full speaker and workshop schedule for its Game Developer Conference 2015 being held at the Westin Hotel from 5 to 7 November in Pune.

     

    The conference will feature speakers from a wide range of regional and international tech companies, developers and publishers, including Microsoft, Unity Technologies, Google, Epic Games, Zynga and Autodesk.

     

    “With a mix of India’s independent games development industry and international speakers and delegates, this years program will provide attendees with a foundation of knowledge and networking opportunities that will help drive their studios,” said NASSCOM Games Developer Conference chairman Anando Banerjee. “By learning from the success and failures of other studios, hands-on workshops and an expo floor featuring some of India’s most innovative new IP across mobile, PC and VR platforms, this will be our best development conference yet.”

     

    Featuring five curated tracks: indie development, game design, marketing and PR, game art and technology, and with over 1300 industry delegates, 70 speakers, 50 games, an Expo promoting Indian video games and a dedicated day for workshops, the NASSCOM Game Developer Conference 2015 showcases the creative talent and upcoming industry trends in interactive entertainment in India.

     

    The conference will kick off on 5 November with a series of games development workshops from Unity Technologies, Google Play, a Design Workshop by Jitesh Panchal, Nazara, a Start-Up Funding Session from Japheth Dillman, Co-Founder of Yetizen and an Art Masterclass from Glu’s Rahul Philip.

     

    The next day, the full programme begins with a welcome address and introduction, followed by a presentation of the NASSCOM Gaming Forum-Newzoo Report for Indian games development. British games designer Ste Curran, will then keynote the design track with a talk called ‘Love and Violence’. Wednesday speaking highlights include a ‘Post Mortem – UNWYND: From Android Failure to Editor’s Choice on iOS’ by Ankush Madad, ‘Dropout Games, Getting Consumers to Love Your Game in under 3 minutes’ by Anila Andrade, 99 Games and ‘25 Tips for Video Game PR’ by Audra McIver, Plan of Attack.

     

    On 6 November, Zynga’s chief visual officer Henry LaBounta with keynote address ‘Learning to See’ on visual effects in games design. Thursday speaking highlights include‘Designing Procedural Content – Good Robot’ by Arvind Raja Yadav, ‘Analytics Driven Product Management’ by Rachna Rao, Zynga, a panel discussion on Indian publishing and a women in game development meet up.

     

    The NGDC 2015 Expo, running alongside the conference, will showcase 50+ games that have been developed or published in India. The NGF 2015 Awards will also recognise achievements in Indian games development and encourage the creation of building original IP in India.