Empower Labs is Transforming the AR-VR gaming Dynamics
Empower Labs is a joint venture by three founders, Krishna Milan Rao, Karthik Chandra Isola and Nelvin Joseph. Wanting to bring Immersive experiences onto everyday devices, Krishna reached out to Karthik, a close friend with an entrepreneurial background, and Nelvin through a mutual acquaintance. Nelvin earlier built Artin Dynamics, a startup delving into Artificial Intelligence, from the ground up, and further Empower Labs was formed.
Empower Labs is launching the Delta T game, promising to bring these experiences first to India, Singapore, and New Zealand. Delta T is India’s first Augmented Reality Mobile MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game. When gamers log on to Delta T, the game starts from their GPS location. Your location is locked in as your battlefield and rival players within the radius can challenge you to a real-time battle. The dynamic map of Delta T gives you a new battlefield based on your new location. Enthusiasts can sign up for a private beta on the Delta T game website.
Augmented Reality and its place in the market
The Global Augmented Reality Market is projected to reach $120 Billion by 2020. Augmented Reality mobile gaming apps are poised to reach 420 million+ downloads by 2019 according to Juniper Research.
Business Model & Funding
Delta T comes with a free to play model with In-App Purchases (IAP) as the primary revenue source. In app purchases will help a gamer to speed up the pace of gameplay and can spice up the user experience by introducing additional elements. After reaching a significant user base, Empower Labs believes brand placements and in app advertisements could be another revenue stream.
They believe AR offers brands a unique positioning to engage users with interactive content. These strategic brand placements and interactions with the brands can be incorporated as part of the gameplay. In the long run, merchandising, comics and apparel can be released for the dedicated gaming community.
The fascinating gameplay
The core gameplay of ‘Delta T’ is battle for survival and dominance on behalf of the player’s Mega corporation. When gamers log on to Delta T, they see their actual location, using their phone’s GPS as the point where the game begins. They need to move around in the real world and interact with people, things and places to play the game. They can also scan for and challenge nearby gamers to battles in real-time, turning the urban landscape into a battlefield. ‘Delta T’ encourages gamers to network with each other to achieve common goals for their Mega corporation.
How attractive this is, for Indian audience.
India poses a significant challenge as Indian audiences are not known to opt for In-App Purchases regularly. Hence In app purchases revenue could be mostly from matured markets that have a high percentage of paying users. For the first beta launch in India, 4,000- 5000 people registering will get a chance to try it out.
We hope India will gain a market share in the gaming sector and will make a significant growth in the coming years.
