Nazara Technologies has hired a gaming industry veteran to help it expand its gaming business. The company has roped in Christopher Franklin to take the helm of Nextwave Multimedia, its mobile gaming subsidiary.

Nazara Tech Hires Industry Veteran: Who is Christopher Franklin?

With over 20 years of experience in the gaming industry, Christopher Franklin was brought in to help Nazara Tech grow the gaming business as it pushes to a new freemium model. Franklin was previously the game design director at game publisher giant, Electronic Arts (EA). He has also worked with mobile gaming publisher Glu Mobile, Mango Games, GSN Games, and others.

Nextwave Multimedia: Push into the Freemium gaming business

Christopher Franklin will be taking on the role of the CEO of Nextwave Multimedia, replacing founder PR Rajendran. The founder will now serve as the company’s board chairman. In 2018, Nazara Tech acquired Nextwave Multimedia by buying a majority share in the company, which has developed and launched casual and multiplayer games for mobile devices. These titles were typically in the sports genre like its flagship series, World Cricket Championship (WCC). With three entries, the WCC games have brought over 100 million in downloads across platforms in just 7 years.

Now, Franklin will lead Nazara Tech’s gaming business as it turns to the lucrative market of freemium games, free-to-play titles that offer in-app purchases to enhance the user’s experience. The company also plans to acquire more gaming studios to expand into the freemium business. It is looking to buy adtech agencies and media planning firms to expand into developed markets. Nazara Tech is set to soon kick off a large marketing campaign ahead of the upcoming ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup in October as well. This move will bring in even higher numbers of players to the WCC series, which is in line with its plans to have over 50 million monthly active users.