Gameshastra wants to make Indian version of Guitar Hero

Games outsource services provider Gameshastra Solutions is to expand its presence in India – and has revealed it is working to close a deal with Activision that would see it producing a version of Guitar Hero for India.

Prakash Ahuja, chief executive officer of Gameshastra, told Business Standard that he was looking in Hyderabad for a location that could help take the staff roster 1,000 employees.

"We are negotiating with a couple of private equity and venture capital firms to raise funds by the year end, and the new facility would be fully operational by the second quarter of next year,” he said.

“We are yet to close the deal with Activision. We hope to launch the Indian version of Guitar Hero in the country by next summer,” Ahuja added.

Gameshastra opened its first outsourcing and development centre in Hyderabad, which currently employes 160 staff, in February this year.

The company is already starting to ramp up work on content tailored specifically for local tastes via games based on Bollywood characters.

“We recently signed agreements with two production houses for developing games based on Bollywood characters for console, online and PC platforms. Development of these games are currently on in tow with Hindi script writers. We expect the first game to be released in India by March next year, and the second in six months from then,” he added.

Gameshastra has also signed an agreement with California-based casual developer, Freeze Tag, to create a new PC, web, and Mac game based on the Etch A Sketch toy, with possible extension to Xbox Live Arcade and Wi versions.