...the protagonist

Pacquiao to star in online game -- UAE news report

abs-cbnNEWS.com

01/31/2011

MANILA, Philippines – Filipino boxing superstar Manny Pacquiao in an online video game? Not impossible.

An Abu Dhabi-based company is planning to create a game which will feature the boxing champion as one of the characters, according to a report in The National, a news website in the United Arab Emirates.

Karkadann Games, a video games company which only debuted this month, said it will attempt to perk the "Pacquiao" character a little bit for the game.

"We're not necessarily going to focus on boxing, we're going to focus on Manny and all the different things that he can represent," Karkadann's general manager, David Ortiz, said.

The company said the Pacquiao-based game will be released online where their target market will have to pay to play.

However, the venture will only come after the Karkadann's first upcoming project, Cricket Power: ICC World Cup 2011, set to be released next month.

Karkadann, a subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Media Company (AMDC), said it is looking forward to the release of the video games. It hopes to make online gaming more popular in the region.

"This is an untapped market. I think that the Arabic space is probably where you're going to find the next CityVille or FarmVille [online games] in terms of magnitude," Ricky Ghai, the head of ADMC's digital department, said.

According to the report, video games are becoming a huge hit in the Middle East region.

They are also expected to get a boost this year, with researches foreseeing the market to grow into $86.8 billion for 2014 from $52.5 billion in 2010.