The FIFA World Cup is just round the corner and the fans are already in a frenzy supporting their favorite teams and predicting the outcome of the tourney. Several people have already started being vocal about their support through online soccer games.
The number of online FIFA players in India is unbelievable and the gaming companies are looking forward to tap this ever-increasing popularity. Online gaming companies plan to make the most of the FIFA World Cup which will be held in South Africa in June this year.
EA (Electronic Sports) sports, the gaming company is the proud creator and owner of the immensely popular FIFA World Cup games franchise. It is expected that around 120 million gamers will play soccer online during the FIFA World Cup in June. The online gaming industry accounts to around $1.3 billion of the total advertising revenues, subscriptions and other sales of virtual items. Games2Win – Mumbai based online gaming company – is expected to launch several new games to coincide with the FIFA World Cup.
Alok Kejriwal, CEO of Games2Win, feels that the craze for Soccer is rising in the country. Games2Win is currently in the process of launching the soccer application especially designed for iPhone. Hyderabad based, 7Seas Technologies is the next gaming company to follow suit with the launch of two new games, Soccer Ball and Soccer tournament.
Reliance Entertainment’s Zapak is also expected to launch new games during the World Cup. Zapak’s Power soccer is already a popular 3D browser based online soccer game in India. Soccer has also taken the mobile gaming industry by storm. According to Nazara Technologies, a leader in the mobile entertainment industry, Soccer accounts for around 2 percent of the total share of the $2 billion mobile gaming market.
Experts suggest that the increasing popularity of soccer due to the EPL has translated to the virtual platform as well. Whether the real version of the game manages to surpass the popularity of Cricket is a question that will be answered only in the near future.
