MPL's Mayhem Studios unveils its first gaming title Underworld Gang Wars

Representative image.

Mayhem Studios, the gaming studio recently launched by Esports and skill gaming app Mobile Premier League (MPL), has unveiled its first gaming title called "Underworld Gang Wars".

The battle royale game will be set in India and revolves around the rivalry between two gangs, the company said. It claimed that the locations, the gangs and the icons represent an Indian context in a AAA game for the first time. AAA Games are typically video game titles that have big budgets for both development and marketing purposes.

"To provide an authentic experience, each region depicted in the game resembles a real location in India, be it the coal mines or the next-door apartment complex. It also has iconic landmarks including a fort, station, stadium and a racecourse" the company said in a statement.

The game is expected to launch later this year with pre-registrations kicking off from May 22.

MPL had launched Mayhem Studios earlier this month to develop 'AAA mobile games' for domestic and global markets. Headquartered in Bengaluru, the studio is being helmed by Ojas Vipat as CEO. Vipat previously worked in MPL's product team for about a year and a half and has also had stints at companies such as Tencent, Junglee Games, and DailyHunt among others.

At launch, MPL had said that Mayhem Studios will work on multiple esports and other game titles.

"We are thrilled to come up with the first Battle Royale Title that promises to offer one of the most relatable storylines for gamers. Underworld Gang Wars's unique locations and the highly relatable universe with great graphics are sure to provide a great experience for Battle Royale players. We are also excited to put together a blockbuster game with some unique stories of India for the world," Vipat said.

Maturing Indian market

This move comes at a time when the gaming habits of Indian consumers are maturing. They have started spending money on mobile games, as they move beyond casual games to those that offer deeper experiences.

India's gaming market is one of the world's biggest in terms of game downloads, registering 2.2 billion installs on Google Play and Apple App Store in Q1 2022, which represented 15 percent of total worldwide downloads, as per data from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

The market is however dominated by international battle royale titles such as Krafton's Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), which is dubbed as a local version of the popular title PUBG (PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds) Mobile and Activision's Call of Duty Mobile.

Garena's popular battle royale game Free Fire, which was the highest revenue generating app across Google Play and Apple's App Store in India in 2021, was banned by the Indian government on February 14, citing security concerns.

That said, preference for games with India-first content is increasing due to its relevance and familiarity, with more than 60 percent of gamers willing to play games with an Indian central theme or characters from mythology or celebrities, a recent report by gaming and interactive media venture fund Lumikai and firm Redseer stated.

Games based on Indian stories and mythology are also expected to pave the way for localisation of mobile games and better monetisation, Moneycontrol reported on December 24.

Apart from Mayhem Studios, Pune-based game development firm Super Gaming is also building a made-in-India battle royale game called Indus, which is expected to debut on PC, mobile, and consoles later this year. The company had said the game will incorporate elements from Indian culture with a futuristic twist.