MPL’s Mayhem Studios Begins Closed Beta Of Its AAA Title Underworld Gang Wars

Mayhem Studios, the mobile game development arm of gaming unicorn Mobile Premier League (MPL), has announced the closed beta launch of its battle royale game Underworld Gang Wars (UGW).

To be sure, this is the company’s first AAA title, which claims to have received over 7 Mn pre-registrations.

In the video game industry, the term AAA is used for games with big development budgets and high promotional costs. A title considered to be AAA is therefore expected to be a high-quality game.

Earlier this month, Mayhem Studios wrapped up its community playtest which saw participation from a host of gamers and content creators, including Dynamo Gaming (Aditya Sawant) and Rawknee (Ronodeep Dasgupta), among others. 

Prior to that, Mayhem Studios also concluded its Alpha playtests.

The game will be played in the first person perspective and allow the fans to play across all the 16 hotspots like the fort, the ghats and the mandi, among others, that will represent Indian locations. 

The players will need to take sides and join as gang members of either The Velvets or the Bhokal Toli to go ahead with the gameplay. They will also be able to play with the whole suite of weapons including the innovative weapons like the hammer and the Katta, which are poised to enhance the gameplay experience. 

Besides opening registration for the Closed beta, Mayhem has also released a trailer of the new game. 

MPL launched Mayhem Studios in May 2022 to develop AAA mobile games. Last year, the company raised  $20 Mn in its Series A funding round led by Peak XV Partners (formerly known as Sequoia Capital India and Southeast Asia) with participation from Steadview Capital, Truecaller and others.

Ojas Vipat, CEO, Mayhem Studios said, “Our goal is to not only develop high-quality games and gaming related IP in India but also build unique titles that make a substantial impact on the gaming industry, both domestically and internationally. UGW is the first step towards this direction.”

The development comes at a time when midcore and hardcore gaming are gradually gaining more traction in India. This year, two or three AAA games are scheduled for launch. Although investors remain apprehensive about investing in AAA gaming studios, a few successful launches can potentially make them more eager to invest in such studios.

Nazara CEO Nitish Mittersain also said at Inc42’s The Makers Summit that with Indian talent gaining experience, the country’s gaming industry has made some progress in the AAA segment in the last 3-4 years. 

Last year, gaming studio KRAFTON was reported to have received full approval from the government to operate its battle royale game Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) in India, which is one of the top grossing games of the country. 

However, earlier this month, BGMI was surpassed by Singapore-based Garena’s Free Fire Max to become India’s most popular esports in terms of user base.

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