SOE, Virgin Comics to Develop Ramayan 3392 A.D. MMO

Sony Online Entertaintment has joined up with Sir Richard Branson and Deepak Chopra's Virgin Comics to create a PC MMO based on the comic book universe of Ramayan 3392 A.D, first released in 2006. Through the exclusive multi-year, worldwide license agreement, SOE will develop and publish the game, with Virgin Comics serving as a creative consultant on the project. Virgin's president and head Suresh Seetharaman, who oversaw the development of the comic book series, will spearhead the consultancy along with Virgin co-founder and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur. Ramayan's premise is a fictional re-imagining of Indian epic lore set in a futuristic realm. "While many of the characters and settings remain familiar to the original lore, we never intended to re-tell the story, but essentially use it as the key inspiration for something fresh," explained Gotham Chopra, Virgin Comics' chief creative officer. "What remains intact to our story are some of the core universal themes like duty, honor, sacrifice, and fraternity," he continued, "while also mining uniquely Indian ideas like karma (how action and consequence are linked) and the malleability of time itself. To bring all of these ideas into a game with SOE is just awesome." The deal was announced today by John Smedley, president of SOE and Sharad Devarajan, co-founder and CEO of Virgin Comics. "Virgin Comics approached us with a portfolio of amazing comic properties based on Indian lore. We particularly love Ramayan 3392 A.D., as we feel Virgin Comics' telling of The Ramayana is particularly gripping, graphically brilliant and lends itself extremely well to an MMO." said Smedley.