Sony Online Entertainment has united with Sir Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra’s Virgin Comics to offer an MMO PC game based on the Ramayan 3392 A.D comic book.
The two companies have signed an exclusive, multi-year, worldwide license agreement for the development of this epic story-based game.
In fact, the news was first announced by John Smedley, President of SOE and Sharad Devarajan, Co-founder and CEO, Virgin Comics.
Virgin Comics will be the creative consultant for this project. SOE’s game development team will be headed by Suresh Seetharaman. He had overseen the development of the Ramayan Comic.
Another notable personality who will be involved with this project is acclaimed film maker Shekhar Kapur, who is a co-founder of Virgin Comics.
Gotham Chopra, Virgin Comics’ Chief Creative Officer said; “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.”
Gotham’s father Deepak Chopra, who is an Indian medical doctor known for his books on spirituality books, said “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.”
“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,” Deepak Chopra added.
Sharad Devarajan, Co-Founder and CEO of Virgin Comic concluded by saying,, “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.”