VIRGIN, SONY JOIN TO BRING RAMAYAN 3392AD ALIVE AS MMO

[MattBrady]

Press Release

Through a deal that joins two of the world’s most innovative entertainment brands, Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), a global leader in the online gaming industry, is teaming up with Sir Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra’s Virgin Comics to bring the popular, India-based Ramayan 3392 A.D. comic book universe to life as an MMO video game initially for the PC.

The deal was announced today by John Smedley, President of SOE and Sharad Devarajan, Co-Founder and CEO of Virgin Comics.

“Ramayan has inspired the lives of millions of people through the ages. The re-imagining of this great ancient epic through the creativity of a game platform re-affirms the fact that Ramayan is one of the greatest stories ever told,” said Deepak Chopra. “The fact that the same creative team of young Indians that created the story will be involved in working with SOE’s game development team, is a testament to the innovative and mythic minds of these gifted Indian creators who will take a new generation to new frontiers across the seas of consciousness into new realms of mystery, magic, adventure, and transformation.”

Through this exclusive multi-year, worldwide license agreement, SOE will develop and publish an MMO based on Ramayan’s story of mythological lore. Virgin Comics will serve as a creative consultant on the project. Virgin’s creative involvement with SOE’s game development team will be spearheaded by its President and head, Suresh Seetharaman, who has also overseen the development of the comic series. Also involved is acclaimed filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, a co-founder of Virgin Comics.

“Virgin Comics approached us with a portfolio of amazing comic properties based on Indian lore. We particularly love Ramayan 3392 A.D., as we feel Virgin Comics’ telling of The Rāmāyana is particularly gripping, graphically brilliant and lends itself extremely well to an MMO,” said Smedley. “This a fantastic time for us to expand our games to include this culturally rich storyline and we are honored to do this with a diversified, creative and experienced company like Virgin Comics.”

Virgin Comics’ Ramayan 3392 A.D., initially released as a comic in late 2006, re-imagines one of India’s greatest epics into a futuristic realm. Gotham Chopra, Virgin Comics’ Chief Creative Officer commented, “While many of the characters and settings remain familiar to the original lore, we never intended to re-tell the story, but essentially use it as the key inspiration for something fresh. What remains intact to our story are some of the core universal themes like duty, honor, sacrifice, and fraternity while also mining uniquely Indian ideas like karma (how action and consequence are linked) and the malleability of time itself. To bring all of these ideas into a game with SOE is just awesome.”

Devarajan concluded, “In a world increasingly dominated with games influenced by a western Tolkien mythos, Ramayan will offer gamers a chance to experience a whole new universe of characters and archetypes derived from one of the oldest cultures on Earth. Our mission at Virgin Comics has always been to allow this generation of Indian youth to have a creative platform through which to speak to the world. Through this collaboration with the likeminded visionaries at SOE, our young Indian creators will make gaming history worldwide.”

[Moored]

Again, no mention about who has written it or drawn it......

[vbartilucci]

Now that MMOs are becoming more common, the ability to create a successful one becomes more challenging. When there was only Everquest, everybody played it, but now that there is WoW, FFXI, City of Heroes/Villains,etc. (not to mention Second Life) , the audience is more fragmented. And considering they almost all charge a monthly fee, not too many people play a lot of different ones.

This the same challenge for both DC and Marvel's upcoming games. I think many people will choose one over the other, and some may choose to stick with CoH/V, since they've spent all their time ranking up their characters there.

I've played EQ and FFXI, but dropped both in under 3 months. Haven't tried CoH, but odds are between the two coming out, I'll try the DC MMO, whenever it comes out.

I've yet to see a Virgin book I was interested in. Solely personal opinion of course, but I've no real interest in Indian myth, and all the Star-created books seem to follow the same pattern of what Topps Comics did back in the 90's - get a famous person to make something up, pay them for the rights to use their name, and their connection to the book from that moment forward is negligible.

[bkbirge]

Virgin needs to spend more time on writing quality comics and less time on trying to 'brand' themselves. Walk-In was great (except for the bizarre last issue) and so was Virulents. I think all the hollywood involvement and branching into other media is diluting their unique concept. Branson and Chopra are just as famous as any actor they can get to lend their name to comics so why spin their wheels on that? And gaming also? Does anyone else smell an Acclaim type disaster on the horizon? They've got the deep pockets to grow this slow for the long haul, i.e. go for quality first and then cherry pick from that what sells. I guess they are going for more of a 'be all things to all people' approach.

[The prophet]

I for one believe in Virgin, well, at least for what I think it can be. Right now, "game keeper" is an awesome book and the telling of that story is really good. I bet there's going to be a movie deal soon.

But like most I would say create great comics first and the rest of these "options" will come no matter what. Virgin has the bank account to really become a true contender in this industry, I just hope they realize it more sooner than later.

[grux]

Originally Posted by vbartilucci

This the same challenge for both DC and Marvel's upcoming games. I think many people will choose one over the other, and some may choose to stick with CoH/V, since they've spent all their time ranking up their characters there.

The buzz in the CoX community is centered on Marvel's game more than DC's. Marvel's is being developed by Cryptic Studios, which was also responsible for CoX. Since they've already proven they can successfuly build a super hero-themed MMO, a lot of the fan base is optimistic that the Marvel MMO will improve upon the already existing formula and take it to the next level. Also, I think the Marvel MMO is being planned to allow more interaction with the licensed properties than the DC game. If that turns out to be true, then it seems to me that Marvel will win this battle.

[tsd08460]

Originally Posted by Moored

Again, no mention about who has written it or drawn it......

Yes, that is odd.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramayan_3392_A.D..
www.virgincomics.com

[strangernpar]

Originally Posted by Moored

Again, no mention about who has written it or drawn it......

it says the same team that did the book will be working on this. Unless I read that wrong