Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) has acquired rights for a videogame based on “Ramayan 3392 AD” from Virgin Comics, a company started by Deepak Chopra, Shekhar Kapur and Richard Branson, reports Variety. SOE is setting up a development team in India, and has planned for a 2010 release for the game. A few of Virgin Comics’ stories - on Devi, Ramayan 3392 AD and Sadhu - are being made into mobile games by Jump Games. Seems strange to me that SOE is looking to target India with the Ramayan 3392 AD game - given that it has religious significance in the country, and one never know hows the religious right might react. Also, this reminds me of a PC game being created on another Indian epic: the Mahabharata.

Virgin Comics has big plans for Ramayan 3922 AD, which is being re-launched. Chief Creative Officer Gotham Chopra has a blog post up here on how they see this particular comic, and that it might well be made into an epic Hollywood movie. The company has recently announced a deal with the Sci Fi Channel for The Stranded, for which they’ve constituted a multimedia, creative editorial board with members representing comic books, television, movies, digital, gaming, licensing and merchandising. “Virulents” is also being made into a movie.

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