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Pakistan IT firm tops world ranking with BlackBerry game
Lahore-based Pepper.pk makes it to the number one spot with Ninja Fruit Bash.
Lahore-based Pepper.pk and Five Rivers Technologies made it to the number one spot with Fruit Ninja Bash.
The Lahore-based Pepper.pk and Five Rivers Technologies made it to the number one spot across all categories on BlackBerry’s AppWorld on August 3 with their game Ninja Fruit Bash, developed for BlackBerry smartphones.
This was the third BlackBerry app developed by the local company to make it to number one on BlackBerry AppWorld.
Their other apps to reach number one include Photo Editor, an app that allows users to edit photographs from their hand-held devices, and LED Notifier, an app that blinks different colored LED for different contacts.
Mahe Zehra Husain, the Head of Operations and Product Management said “We are thrilled at this achievement. We already have two world number one utilities on BlackBerry AppWorld and adding a game to our family shows that not only can good code be developed for software utilities in Pakistan we can actually make amazing games as well!”
Ninja Fruit Bash Storyline
Ninja Fruit Bash follows the quest of a Ninja as he travels across China slicing tainted and poisoned fruit in order to save humanity.
The fruit is poisoned by the evil spirit of Orochi and is fatal if eaten. Orochi has turned fertile fruit gardens all over China into poisonous wasteland and our Ninja is on a mission – to return all the fruit gardens to their former glory.
Reader Comments (39)
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Awesome news !!! Well done, Pepper.pk and Five Rivers Technologies . Keep it coming. Please make some apps for iPhone too.
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Great work, keep it up.
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I take my request back, it looks like pepper.pk has some iPhone apps
http://www.pepper.pk/?pageid=144&pdcat=2
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Let us be pragmatic here. Blackberry constitutes less than 0.2% OS marketshare and it is rapidly declining [1]. What matters is not these temporary app trends but how much revenue did Pepper.pk make.
[1] – http://marketshare.hitslink.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?spider=1&qprid=8
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@Khalid Ahmed: Are you kidding me? less than 0.2% and declining? Plz educate yourself before making such a comment. From where did you pull that graph out ? BlackBerry is growing like crazy all over the world. http://www.itp.net/585376-rim-adds-one-million-emea-customers-in-three-weeksRecommend
Good job.
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wonder if there is a chinese connection in funding and support.
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Its very good that Pakistani software companies are also making their ways back to International software market after being sidelined by western buyers. This success will not only provide confidence to Pakistani developers but will also attract international buyers back to Pakistani Software and gaming Companies.
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@Khalid Ahmed
Does entrepreneur spirit, a company hiring workers to channelize their energies and talents and trying to become part of global economy makes any sense to you? Does it has any value in your view? Please save your pessimism for something else.
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First the sorry Chopper game and now this bad looking rip off of HalfBrick’s Fruit Ninja! (http://www.halfbrick.com/our-games/fruit-ninja/)
I am sorry but what is to be proud of in this?. We have to come with better and above all original products in market!Recommend
Ninja, in China? Weren’t ninja’s supposed to be of Japanese orgin? Need to check your facts.
Congratulations, though. Android, anyone?
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Thank you very much for your support and appreciation! We are so excited about this achievement and hope to give you all a lot more to be proud of. Pakistan is a country full of talented and dedicated young people, all that is needed is a few good ideas and the will to follow through with them.
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Great work.. This is just the beginning..
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Pepper.pk and Five Rivers Technologies u r doing gud job …keep it up thumbs up…
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great work. very few good news come out of our country, which indeed has one of the best talent in the world. keep it up and congrats on your success. made us proud!!!!
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@Irtiza:
Early ninja influenced by Chinese monks. http://asianhistory.about.com/od/warsinasia/p/NinjaProfile.htm
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A very good news. Makes me proud. Hope the company continue to evolve and gets more competitive in future.
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@Khalid: according to a source at FRT, they made 10 million PKR from this game alone.
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@Khalid’s dad
Ignoring your personal attacks, you don’t seem to know how to think in percentage. If Blackberry adds one million new costumers there will be tens of millions of new Android/iPhone customers, thus the overall marketshare of Blackberry will decline.
@Sacha Sain
Sorry but journalism is about showing reality, not pumping fake optimism into people. In this capitalistic world no one will ask whether your company’s app was trending for a couple of days or how much talent the employees have. What matters is the company’s valuation. What’s the use of top ranked app if the company fails to earn even $1 million from it?
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Congratulations! keep it up
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@Mahe Zehra Husain:
Allah bless your work. Here is your new idea. Develop one application related to medical science where some doctors from all over the world can connect through blackberry service with blackberry users. They can get any medical support or advise ppl while users work at home or office.You can call that application Doctor Online. Good Luck
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Who cares about blackberry. Nobody used BB for games. Although nice job but main platforms are iOS and Android. Top these charts and we will be so proud.
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They can introduce some additional games like “Drone Games”, “Militant Attack on PNS” etc for IPhone & IPAD. It`ll be more instinctive & natural & therefore would be instant hit. Slowly, they can keep adding other militant attacks on other countries.
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Nice work. Definitely commendable. But the idea is too close to Fruit Ninja, although a nice spin on the story.
Top iOS games sales are at least a 100 times more than BlackBerry game sales, so I have my doubts they made Rs.10mil. but great if they did.
Traditionally, BBs are not used for gaming as they simply cannot match up to the iPhone or Android experience. Hence topping in Utilities category was in my opinion a sweeter deal.
They should definitely get press as it gives a positive image for our country and the talent here.
Keep it up guys!
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Great story, great achievement. Congrats!
@Akhtar, if that really is your name, get a life.
@JM, I think you are quite seriously misinformed. Some of the world’s leading game developers, including Electronic Arts, build and market games on the Blackberry. Legendary titles like Monopoly, Tetris and more are available for the platform. And the number of apps on Appworld has exceeded 25,000 now, not counting QNX apps. Blackberry market share is still #2 in the US at 30.4% of the total market (http://mashable.com/2011/03/08/android-smartphone-platform-report/) Anyway you look at it, your comment is far removed from reality.
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@Khalids Big brother
That’s what I was talking about. The company made just $1,00,000 from the app. In the scheme of things, it’s irrelevant.
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does look very similar to fruit ninja…
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Mahe Zehra, a big congratulation, you silenced the world, keep it up, a big achievement and many more to come,
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@khalid ahmed, usman malik n few others.
try to appreciate the good which u cant even think of achieving. Be positive and try to learn something from others success.
Anyways, well done folks at pepper pk and 5 rivers, u are a benchmark for the rest.
When are we having a gulli dunda game on android and BB.
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@M.A.S
Well with all the due respect I will reserve my respect and admiration for when we really get a Gulli Danda game! A cheap rip off of a very famous Fruit Ninja game by Halfbrick with funny looking and poor graphic game cannot get my praise at least. My apologies, I expect better from my country because I know they can do better.
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@Usman Malik.
Its funny to read ur comments. The game has been rather internationally ranked. So there must be something in it. Regarding the guli dunda game, it’s a local tradition and needs to be brought into electronic form. It’s an idea, it’s the game designers who need to sit down and sign the story line.
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please step into 3d and computer games… why can’t you guys make CoD.
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Irtiza says “Ninja, in China? Weren’t ninja’s supposed to be of Japanese orgin? Need to check your facts.”
I think the question was genuine. Don’t you see the great wall of China in the image?!!!
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@ Usman Malik
@ Khalid Ahmed..
Ur comments will be appprecited if u learn to encourage mediocrity.
Just read the comment by “Adam” where he is congratulating Mahe Zehra Husain for silencing the world.
People are already claiming that the company was richer my 10 million rupees owing to this application. Pakistanis , when in self congratulatory mode. hardly listen to sane voices.
This laughable rip off of an application is already being touted as a big achievment..Pakistan Zindabad !!
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Good work feeling proud. I am working as an IOS and Android developer of a major mobile based organisation in UK. I always wish to come back Pakistan. Now this news encourages me to make my decision. At least some companies in Pakistan doing good job in Mobile computing area. Keep it up and please look in to Augmented Reality based apps.
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@Shahid, i think you are misinformed, the percentage of games on iphone & android are way more than BB. Big giants like Electronic Arts join in due to big contract deals made by BB so that interest among other developers rise up. You have no idea what you are talking about. I do BB & iPhone development myself and exactly know what market position is at the moment. Btw, blackberry market is declining day by day if you know about this.
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Come on guys appreciate them rather than criticise. Why we all have this attitude? That company knows his market, experties and business plans. They achieve a top place so please encourage them.
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All employees of Five Rivers need a great applause. You have kept our head high in the world. Congratulations for bringing glory to Pakistan
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So you can copy games off iOS and Android and release with a different name, score a crore rs and get away with it? cool
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