Leading telecom service provider VodafoneIdea (Vi) Monday, announced the partnership with Rakesh Jhunjhunwala-backed Nazara Technologies Limited, an India based diversified gaming and sports media company, launching a new service called Vi Games.

The new gaming service will offer over 1,200 games to Vodafone Idea subscribers across free and premium tiers, across 10 popular genres like Action, Adventure, Arcade, Casual, Education, Fun, Puzzle, Racing, Sports and Strategy.

Gaming is one of the biggest segments amongst the entertainment category and is estimated to cross 500 million users within 2022 in India, as per a FICCI-EY report.

Another report, ‘Digital Reset: Touching a billion Indians’, by Deloitte and CII indicated that the national average time spent by Indian consumers on online gaming is over by four hours, an official statement said, dwelling on the partnership.

The Vi Games service will include both native android as well HTML5-based games.

Vodafone Idea has divided Vi Games into three categories – gold, platinum and free.

Gold Games to include the largest library of games across the three categories, with the Gold Pass priced at Rs. 50 for postpaid users, and Rs. 56 for prepaid users, with a 30-day validity.

Platinum Games, accessible on a pay-per-download basis, is priced at Rs. 25 for postpaid and Rs. 26 for prepaid users.

Free Games will include over 250 games, available for free for all Vodafone Idea subscribers.

Making the announcement, Vodafone Idea’s chief marketing officer, Avneesh Khosla said, “We are seeing a significant uptake of gaming consumption in India with more than 95 percent of gaming enthusiasts using the mobile device to enjoy a wide variety of content.

“We see gaming as a major focus area of our digital content strategy and we intend to build a comprehensive play encompassing most facets of gaming with the aim of establishing Vi as a preferred destination for both, casual as well as serious gamers.”