99 Games joins YRF and Salman Khan for Sultan

After success of FAN: The Game – the official game for Yash Raj Film’s forthcoming movie Fan, 99Games and YRF have announced their next partnership on a game for Eid release of Salman Khan starrer – Sultan.

99Games has signed a deal with Yash Raj Films (YRF) to exclusively publish ‘Sultan: The Game’ based on the Salman Khan movie of the same name, as reported on BusinessWire. YRF mentions that in the future, the company will not just create movie-themed games, but also use concepts from the movie and release games ahead of the movie to drive audiences to first day shows.

“Post the success of FAN: The Game, with incredible player reviews and an average of 4.8 star rating on the Stores, we are excited to work yet again with Yash Raj Films to build an action-centric mobile game for YRF’s Salman Khan starrer, Sultan,” said Rohith Bhat, CEO of 99Games.

“99Games has had the pleasure and opportunity of scoring a hat-trick of developing games involving the ‘Khans’ with each of the games reflecting the persona of the celebrity – an intense racing game in ‘Dhoom: 3 The Game’ with Aamir Khan, a more casual and mass appeal game in ‘FAN: The Game’ with Shah Rukh Khan and now an action oriented game in ‘Sultan: The Game’ with Salman Khan, adding to our celebrity portfolio,” Bhat added.

Commenting on the same, Manan Mehta, Vice President – Marketing & Merchandising at Yash Raj Films said, “At YRF we don’t look at gaming as an ancillary tool to market films. In fact, that would be a disservice to the opportunity mobile gaming in India presents. For us, it is an independent vertical that drives revenue and gamer engagement. A film-themed game is just the starting point of the product development strategy to get new users on board.”

“The heart of the overall strategy is still about driving KPIs (viz. DAUs, ARPU, ARPPU). And if this can also help translate into first day audience, then why not explore it? In the near future we will create not just movie-themed games but many new concepts and take the mobile gaming agenda ahead,” Mehta further added.

Sultan is expected to release on 8 July this year, although it has not been revealed if the game will be released with, or after the movie. 99Games and YRF have tied-up before; prior to this FAN: The Game was released based on a Shah Rukh Khan led movie.

The company had also launched Dhoom: 3 The Game, again based on the movie, back in 2013. Other than games in tie up with YRF, 99Games offers games like Star Chef, SpellUp, Million Dollar Arm Game etc. on Android.