Sony Ericsson Crowns India's 'Best Mobile Gamers' At The Finale Of 'Be The Master Of Games'

Online, December 13, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Sony Ericsson along with Zapak.com announced India's 'Best Mobile Gamers' at the finale of the India's First Mobile Gaming Tournament - 'Be The Master of Games' that took place at Oberoi Mall, Goregaon (E) on Saturday, 10th December, 2011. Team Mumbai - Romin Yazeshani, Ravi Kumar Gowda and Sushanth S Shetty from Datamatics emerged as the nation's unbeatable winners of 'Be The Master of Games'. This initiative brought alive the immersive experience of Mobile Gaming on the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY, the world's first PlayStation certified smart phone that is powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon™ S2 mobile processor.

Actress Shazahn Padamsee who graced the event, played a vital role in accelerating the enthusiasm of participants as well as crowds present at the venue. At the end of a nerve wracking final, Shazahn presented awards to the 'Best Corporate Mobile Gaming Team' in India and the 'Best Mobile Pro Gamer'. They all won Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY as prizes.

Flagged off on June 24, 2011, 'Be The Master of Games' tournament targets 2 consumer segments, viz., 'Corporate Executives' & 'Pro Gamers'. The two pronged approach allowed the distinct consumers for the Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY to experience the PlayStation-certified Smartphone and compete together to decide the best mobile gamers in the country.

The Corporate Mobile Gaming tournament held across six cities - Delhi/NCR, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Bangalore and Pune - reached out to more than a 100 corporate organizations. Endorsing the spirit of teamwork, 'Be The Master of Games' presented an opportunity for employees to showcase their gaming skills, effective teamwork and be part of a national mobile gaming tournament.

The second consumer segment were Pro Mobile Gamers who entered the tournament from across 44 Zapak Gameplexes in 11 cities - Delhi/NCR, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Lucknow, Kolkata, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Pune. Gamers came together to compete for the title of 'Best Pro Mobile Gamer' and the opportunity to live the revolutionary technology on Sony Ericsson's Xperia PLAY Smartphone.

"The intensity and skill displayed by the finalists was truly a breathtaking experience. In my opinion, all participants played exceptionally well and deserve their wins. I'm extremely happy to have been associated with Sony Ericsson and Qualcomm's initiative to promote mobile gaming in India and wish them greater success for the future." said actor Shazahn Padamsee

Elaborating on this announcement, Prasun Kumar, Marketing Head, Sony Ericsson India, said "Taking experiential marketing to the next level, Sony Ericsson has collaborated with Zapak to create experiences around the Xperia PLAY. Consumers will be able to enjoy the rich and vibrant ecosystem through this nationwide competition. Powered by Qualcomm's high-performance Snapdragon S2 mobile processor which enables console quality gaming on our devices, Sony Ericsson has been able to bring in the best-in-class gaming experience on the phone."

"The Sony Ericsson 'Be the Master of Games' in association with Qualcomm was a pioneering initiative to promote Mobile Gaming in India. Corporate Gamers and Pro Gamers from across 11 cities got to experience world class mobile gaming on the Snapdragon-powered Sony Ericsson Xperia PLAY," said Rakesh Rao, Business Head - Consumer Activation at Zapak Digital Entertainment. "We look forward to our continued association with Sony Ericsson and Qualcomm to establish Mobile Gaming as a true Electronic Sport in the country."

About Sony Ericsson
Sony Ericsson celebrates its 10th year as a joint venture between Sony Corporation and Ericsson in October, 2011. Over the years the company has brought together the best communication technologies with superior entertainment user experiences to create its Xperia™ line of the „most entertaining smartphones‟ in the mobile handset industry. With its global corporate functions in London, Sony Ericsson has sales and marketing operations in all major regions of the world, as well as manufacturing in China, and product development sites in China, Japan, Sweden and Silicon Valley, California. For more information, please visit: www.sonyericsson.com/press.

About Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd.:
Zapak Digital Entertainment Limited is India's largest gaming company with interests in online gaming, social gaming, subscription gaming service, gaming cafes, physical games retail/distribution, MMOG publishing and mobile gaming.

Currently 8 million registered gamers, Zapak.com is not only the largest casual gaming sites in the country but amongst the top gaming sites in the world.

Zapak owns the largest chain of dedicated gaming cafes in the country - Zapak GamePlex. These are first of its kind, high speed gaming cafes that offer world class gaming content to the Indian user. Presently there are over 92 cafes in more than 32 cities in India. Zapak Games, the licensing & merchandising arm of Zapak has created one of India's largest retail distribution network with presence in over 5000 retail outlets across 135 cities all across India.

Zapak is also the biggest publisher of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) in India. It has launched some of the world's most popular MMOG titles such as "Crazy Kart" & "Crazy Kart2" (in partnership with Shanda, China's largest Gaming company worth $ 3 Billion) and "Runescape" (world's second largest MMO with over 8 million subscribers, in partnership with Jagex Games Studio).

Zapak has forayed in social gaming with their first social game 'Zapak Tambola' on Facebook. Zapak Plus, a subscription gaming service offers full version PC games at affordable pricing.

Zapak works closely with most of the leading global gaming and entertainment players such as EA, Microsoft, Valve, Popcap, Boonty, Payfirst, Disney, Universal Studios, Shanda, Jagex, Cartoon Network, THQ, iPlay, Hands-On, Ubisoft, THQ, Codemasters, etc.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT:
Zapak Digital Entertainment Limited:
Devika Bahl
7498249843
devika.bahl@zapak.co.in

Hanmer MS&L Communications:
Pritu Hait
9987003160
pritu@hanmermsl.com