Bandai Namco Invests in Pune-Based Game Studio SuperGaming: Details

Bandai Namco Entertainment, the Japanese game publisher known for entries such as Elden Ring, the Dark Souls trilogy and Pac-Man, has invested in Pune-based developer SuperGaming. The company is using its ‘Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund’, a fund designed to invest in start-ups and build its ‘IP metauniverse’, by investing in the Indian studio and US-based Deepmotion. The fund was launched in April of last year, in anticipation of Web3 and amid other developments in the metaverse. The press release did not mention the size of the deal, but the size of the fund’s investment ranges from 10 million yen (about Rs 62 lakh) to 500 million yen (about Rs 31 crore).

“Working on PAC-MAN was a bucket list item I was lucky enough to check off,” said Robbie John, co-founder and CEO, SuperGaming said in a prepared statement. “Having a customer become an investor is the biggest validation we at SuperGaming could ask for, so it’s a huge honor for Bandai Namco to invest in us and join us on our journey to create games that people have been playing for years.” While SuperGaming is known for its portfolio of mobile games, which includes the social deduction title Silly Royale and multiplayer FPS MaskGun, they also have a cloud-based game development engine called SuperPlatform. The technique was announced last year in collaboration with Google Cloud, allowing game developers to use the SaaS (software as a service) engine to build games from scratch – assets and all – in addition to managing analytics, tracking player data , monetization and integration with games built on Unity, Unreal Engine, PlayCanvas and Cocos Creator.

“Through this investment, we will aim to expand our business by combining our IP expertise with a deeper understanding of the Asian market, which is expected to grow further in the future,” statement from Bandai Namco Entertainment (BNE) reads. As mentioned earlier, the Japanese gaming giant has also invested in DeepMotion, which is known for solutions aimed at bringing digital characters to life through AI-powered motion capture and real-time body tracking. BNE intends to create new “entertainment experiences” with this technology.

Meanwhile, SuperGaming is hard at work on Indus, its upcoming Indo-futuristic Battle-Royale title set on a floating island. In it, you play as Mythwalker, a hired gun working for COVEN, searching for the rare mineral Cosmium, which can alter space and time. Like other titles in the genre, players are dropped into the map to scavenge for supplies, survive, and kill anyone who gets in their way to emerge victorious. However, at certain intervals during the game, the Cosmium will appear at a random point which, when taken, gives the wielder an outright victory. The studio previously added Olympic pistol shooter Heena Sidhu as a playable character in Indus, pre-registrations for which are now live on Google Play Store.