Gaming majors including Sony Ericsson, Zapak.com and Microsoft Xbox 360, on Thursday, have come together to launch World Gaming Day across the globe.

The World Gaming Day is scheduled to take place on 12th February 2009.

Indian market of late has become an important part of all tech majors so the three are pursuing this first of its kind global initiative from India.
 
With the aim to take gaming to a new height, the trio would jointly promote the initiative across media.

The companies expect that the World Gaming Day, which is intended to be an annual feature, will promote mobile, computer and video games.

According to the initiative, World Gaming Day is expected to pull over 10 million gamers across the world to join this year’s celebrations.

Mr. Rohit Sharma, Chief Operating Officer (CEO), Zapak Digital Entertainment Ltd, said, “Gaming is the next big option in Entertainment and it is here to stay! In the coming years gaming will touch new heights and will be the biggest entertainment option worldwide. It was about time someone stood up and gave it its due recognition and we are proud to have initiated the same with ‘World Gaming Day.”

There are many contests and activities involved in the celebration for 'World Gaming Day' that include mall activities, championships at Zapak Gameplexes and an online contest. Moreover, the companies have also declared prizes worth more than Rs 3 crore for winners in a contest.

Concurrently, Sony Ericsson has made announcement about the launching of its first gaming handset ‘F305’.

The handset, which is priced at Rs 8,995, comes with motion sensor technology that lets the handset to follow the user’s actions to imitate bowling or casting a fishing line, which are the two of the games on the set.

While lecturing on the initiative, Mr. Sudhin Mathur, General Manger of Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications India said, “We are happy to have joined hands with Zapak.com for this wonderful initiative of ‘World Gaming Day’. Sony Ericsson has recently launched Sony Ericsson F305- a dedicated gaming phone. The launch of this motion gaming phone also takes mobile gaming to the next step. We hope to get maximum participation for the celebration of World Gaming Day.”

Others present during the event were Jaspreet Bindra, Regional Director-Enetertainment Devices Division, Microsoft Corporation (India), Bollywood actor Aftab Shivdasani and a selective group of gamers across the world.

According to PwC, the gaming industry worldwide is poised to touch $46.5 billion mark by next year (2010). The report also said that the Indian gaming industry is estimated to touch $200 million by 2011.