MMORPG Game developer Kreeda, which launched a gaming portal in beta only a couple of days ago, has announced that they’ve received funding from IDG Ventures and SoftBank China & India Holdings. ET reports that the investment is less than $10 million. Kreeda plans to release 3 games by the end of the year; their first, Dance Mela, is expected to be released by mid-August.

The games are being sourced from overseas, and repurposed for the Indian market. I just checked, and Dance Mela is currently in closed beta. The promotional videos seem remarkably similar to those for Super Dancer Online by chinese game developer 9you. See this video, from Kreeda, and then this. So Kreeda’s plan seems to be to primarily repackage the MMOGs. Revenue is expected to come from purchases of in-game items, for which I think they’ll have to work out a convenient payment mechanism, given low credit card penetration in India.

I think they might be better off considering other opportunities, like creating branded sites for TV shows that already have dancing competitions, or in-game branding - the former can drive usage, and the latter, revenue. In any case, Kreeda CEO Quentin Staes-Polet’s claim of acquiring subscribers in the “multi-millions” by next year seems absurd, given the lack of broadband penetration in this country. Calls to Staes-Polet for more details on their plans, weren’t answered.