Zapak has partnered with Disney’s Global Club Penguin to bring Club Penguin on Zapak platform – zapak.com. Zapak is now the official affiliate for Club Penguin in India. Hat tip @deepakabbot. From the website, it looks like the game has been online since mid-November.
Club Penguin is a multi-player online game specifically designed for kids between 6-14 year old. It involves a virtual world that contains a range of online games and activities. The game was first created in 2005 by New Horizon Interactive and was bought by The Walt Disney in 2007. Since the game is targeted at kids, it uses various methods for child safety such as preventing the use of inappropriate usernames, and automatic filters for messages, among others.
Monetization: Since it’s an affiliate partnership, Zapak earns a percentage share from every membership subscription from Zapak. The company refused to disclose the exact rev-share percentage. A half yearly subscription costs Rs 990 and Rs 1900 for a full year subscription. Apart from that, there’s also in-app purchases for events, and other activities. We also noticed pre-roll ads for Club Penguin on the Zapak platform, so Zapak’s also generating revenue with its own ads.
Disney’s Club Penguin is also available on other platforms such as Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii and on Disney’s website.
It’s interesting to note that Disney tied up with Zapak for the launch of Club Penguin, while it’s also offering the game independently on ClubPenguin.com, with support for Indian currency. Note that Disney had bought UTV, while UTV had acquired 86.02% shares in Indiagames by October 2011.
Other developments
Recently, Reliance Entertainment Digital, consolidated its gaming business under the Zapak brand name. The company’s gaming business was spread across Zapak and Jump Games brands. Jump Games is the mobile gaming subsidiary of the Reliance Entertainment group. Earlier this year, Zapak had launched a cricket based social game, Cricville, on Facebook. Prior to that it had launched Zapak Tambola on Facebook.
