The Walt Disney Company (India) will launch Disney Jeans in the country through brand Disney. Indus Clothing will manufacture and market the range of non-character apparel and fashion accessories, which will be retailed through exclusive DisneyJeans stores in high-end shops, malls, key retail chains and multi-brand outlets across the country.

Designed especially for children, the core denim product line will feature T-shirts, fleece and accessories in nearly 100 styles for kids aged four-14.

?Disney aims to create a line of products that meets the quality and values of Indian consumers while offering design and styling that match international fashion trends,? said Rajat Jain, managing director, The Walt Disney Company (India).

The jeans range is meant to extend the brand beyond the popular character franchises and ?establish Disney as the preferred fashion and lifestyle brand for kids and youngsters across the world?, he added.

Jain observed that the kids? branded apparel and accessories market in India was estimated at $ 600 million in the financial year ?05 and is estimated to grow to $ 850 million by 2010. ?The market is driven by both character and non-character merchandise, but the latter segment constitutes almost 85 per cent share of the total market. This represents a huge opportunity,? he added.

Harpratap Singh, director of Indus Clothing, stressed on the ?tremendous opportunity? in this segment, explaining that the focus would be to ?build a strong retail network for the brand and give it a pan-Indian presence. The kidswear market in India is almost 15 per cent of the apparel market, poised for a yearly growth of about 40 per cent. But it is untapped by international kidswear labels and brands.?

In addition, Indus Clothing plans to invest around Rs 21 crore to set up 20 exclusive DisneyJeans stores by the end of 2007 and take the number to 50 by 2008.

The brand is available in European markets like France, Italy, Spain and Belgium, and in Asia in Taiwan, Thailand and China. The range will be launched soon in North America, other parts of Europe and Hong Kong.

 

Gaming goal

After quests, mages and warriors in Ragnarok, it?s time for blazing guns, sinister swords and Matrix-style overcoats in GUNZ ? The Duel .

GUNZ, launched by Level Up, the company behind Ragnarok, introduces the Massively Multiplayer Online Third Person Shooter (MMOTPS) category of online gaming in India. The game allows the player to customise his Avatar and equip it with clothes, guns and other weapons. The player can create his own room and fight with friends or enter any open room and take on strangers.

?Action and shooting are the two most popular categories among the gaming community in India,? said Venkat Mallik, managing director of Level Up, India.

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The company plans to build a national online community around the game. ?Usually the ranking is restricted to players within the LAN in a cyber caf?. But in GUNZ, there would be a national ranking system and players can fight for the Daily Top Player or Player of the Week slots,? Mallik explained.

Simple controls (W-A-S-D keys, the space bar and the mouse), slick graphics, speed and action are the game?s highlights. Death-defying moves like fighting on walls and atop columns and statues also add to the excitement of the game developed in Korea.

?Our target is the 12 to 25-year-old male who is into action movies and games,? said Mallik.

The game?s story is of Astra Continent, the world of fantasy where a strong push toward modernisation followed the ?Industrial Cataclysm?. Fifty years after the end of the war between the Republic and the Empire, the age of adventure has arrived and adventurers and bounty hunters have crossed the border between the Empire and the Republic. It is up to the player now to face them in battle and decide whether to fight against them or join hands.

GUNZ can be downloaded and played for free from http://www.gunzonline.co.in or ordered on CD for Rs 100. Level Up plans to add more online gaming titles and enter the mobile gaming segment this year.