A casual stroll on the Raj Bhavan road yesterday led me to a discovery of sorts. The gaming portal Zapak.com has opened a unique flagship store called Zapak Gameplex which I think is its first in Hyderabad. For the uninitiated, Zapak.com is a leading gaming portal offering free online games including multiplayer, arcade games, action games, sports games, flash games, strategy games, online adventure games and much more. It is owned by the Anil Ambani controlled Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group.

I remember reading about such a store being opened up in Bangalore, sometime in September and back then, the press announcement had stated that there were plans to open up 250 more such stores across the country. Gaming - as a pastime - is already popular in India and with PC’s and LAN’s and Torrents (as well as the neighborhood-pirated-game-cd-wallah) becoming ubiquitous nowadays, the gaming industry is on the rise. I confess that I too was (am?) an ardent gamer and though I prefer to play’em on a stand-alone PC, LAN-gaming is a pretty big hit. I play NFSU at Reliance WebWorld on Saturdays/Sundays and see hordes of youngsters hooked on to frag-a-thons with CS [Counter Strike, if you didn't know!] And since both the WebWorlds and Gameplexes belong to the same company, it may happen that whilst the former will be retained for browsing and conferencing solutions, the latter may become exclusive game-cafes (Gaffes )

FYI, the Gameplex’s Address is:
1st Floor
ISA Arcade [Above Koutons Showroom]
Raj Bhavan Road
Hyderabad - 500082
A.P.