Bollywood 3D Eyes Higher Sales, Lower Piracy Through $1-$2 Video Games

Here’s an interesting article on a company that seems to have found a way to circumvent lower PC penetration, piracy and content problems facing the Indian gaming industry. Come December and Indo-American startup Bollywood 3D will launch its first video game which is tied to a futuristic crime film intermingled with a love story. [via News.com] In the game, players will adopt characters from the films as avatars, grab virtual weapons and go to town. But instead of launching it after the movie’s release, the game priced between $1 to $2, will be released prior to the movies. Gamers will then gather for LAN parties and competitions and winners will get invites to the premiere, meet the stars and receive merchandise.

Here’s their game plan:

- Keeping costs low:
The first step for the company was to lower development costs. So unlike the $10 million-plus budget of some U.S. publishers, these games will cost $100,000 or less and take a team two months or so to crank out.

- Lower prices:
Still, at $1 and $2 a title while the company is successfully closing in the price of pirated software, it is certainly not covering its costs. That gap will be covered by advertising and cross promotion.

- Trying to stay top of mind:
Plans are to launch one to four new games a month.

-Keeping pirates at bay:
The company says that while gamers will figure out ways to copy the discs, only owners of legitimate copies can participate in the contests.

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