Sony is launching seven new Indian video games this year to tap into India’s burgeoning games market, said a top official with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe.

"We will launch games based on Indian contexts, like traditional Indian outdoor and indoor games and another game based on the underworld activities in Mumbai," said Atindriya Bose, the UK’s country-manager for Sony Playstation.

In order to catch the fancy of the young generation, SCEE is all set to launch localised games.

"We have taken new direction in terms of localisation. We recognise the importance of localised content," Bose explained.

Sony’s Indian Village game will allow players to score in traditional games like pasha, kabaddi, gili danda and kite flying.

Apart from the Indian Village and the Mumbai Underworld games, SCEE will also launch quiz-based games, he added.

Late last month SCEE launched Hanuman: Boy Warrior, a game that can be played in Hindi.

"It’s our first indigenously developed Indian game," Bose said.

In the last three months, the global launches of SCEE included Killzone 2, Resistance Retribution, Racing Game and Little Big Planet.

The gaming devices on which games can be played are PlayStation2 (PS2), PlayStationPortable (PSP) and PlayStation3 (PS3).

All the games were developed in partnership with separate gaming studios in India.

"We are working with many of them like - Hyderabad-based Aurona Technologies, which developed Hanuman, the quiz-based game is being done by Bangalore-based Candela, Indian Village and Mumbai Underworld games are being developed by Hyderabad-based Game Shastra," said Bose.

"All these games require around 10 months to be completely developed," he added.

SCEE registered 300 per cent growth in 2008 and occupies 80 per cent of India’s market size ahead of competitor Microsoft.

Bose said the gaming industry was growing very fast in India despite the economic turndown.