Jump Games to set up studio in Canada or Singapore

Mobile game developer Jump Games is looking to set up a studio in Canada or Singapore before the end of the year, Manish Agarwal, CEO of parent company Reliance Entertainment Digital, has told MCV.

We’re clear that we need to have a studio outside India. We’re looking at exploring the talent pool in either Singapore or Canada by opening a studio there because it’s going to take time for the local talent to develop,” Agarwal said.

Jump Games is a subsidiary of Reliance Entertainment, which also owns a 50% stake in UK developer-publisher Codemasters.

The company is yet to decide whether the overseas team would work independently or in collaboration with Jump’s 120-member Pune studio.

Ideally, I’d like there to be collaboration and knowledge sharing. One option is to just have the intellectual staff – game design, art leads and senior producers – sitting there, and the engineering being done here.”

The new studio will be set up before the end of the current financial year, with Agarwal also open to the option of acquiring a small, existing developing team in either country.

We’re open to finding a small, 6-7 member team that is already into servicing or publishing and absorbing it. With game development being creative work, there needs to be chemistry within the team. So if we can get a team that already has that chemistry, then that would accelerate the whole process.”

Jump Games develops smartphone games for international markets, with a focus on licensed IPs. Recent releases include games based on films like Real Steel and Total Recall.

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