Sir Richard Branson's Virgin Comics is teaming up with Sony Online Entertainment (SOE) to bring the popular Indian epic Ramayan comic book to life as an online video game.

The deal was announced Thursday in New York by John Smedley, president of SOE which is a global leader in the online gaming industry, Sharad Devarajan, the chief executive officer and co-founder of Virgin Comics, author and new age guru Deepak Chopra and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur.

"Ramayan has inspired the lives of millions of people through the ages. The re-imagining of this great ancient epic through the creativity of a game platform re-affirms the fact that Ramayan is one of the greatest stories ever told," said Deepak Chopra.

"The fact that the same creative team of young Indians that created the story will be involved in working with SOE's game development team is a testament to the innovative and mythic minds of these gifted Indian creators. They will take a new generation to new frontiers across the seas of consciousness into new realms of mystery, magic, adventure, and transformation," he added.

Through this exclusive multi-year, worldwide license agreement, SOE will develop and publish a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously based on Ramayan's mythological story.

Virgin Comics will serve as a creative consultant on the project. Virgin's creative involvement with SOE's game development team will be spearheaded by its president and head Suresh Seetharaman, who has also overseen the development of the comic series. Shekhar Kapur will also be involved in the development process.

Smedley said: "Virgin Comics approached us with a portfolio of amazing comic properties based on Indian lore. We particularly love Ramayan 3392 AD, as we feel Virgin Comics' telling of The Ramayana is particularly gripping, graphically brilliant and lends itself extremely well to an MMO.

"This a fantastic time for us to expand our games to include this culturally rich storyline and we are honoured to do this with a diversified, creative and experienced company like Virgin Comics."

Virgin Comics' Ramayan 3392 AD, initially released as a comic in late 2006, re-imagines one of India's greatest epics into a futuristic realm.

Gotham Chopra, Virgin Comics' chief creative officer said: "While many of the characters and settings remain familiar to the original lore, we never intended to re-tell the story, but essentially use it as the key inspiration for something fresh.

"What remains intact to our story are some of the core universal themes like duty, honour, sacrifice and fraternity while also mining uniquely Indian ideas like karma (how action and consequence are linked) and the malleability of time itself. To bring all of these ideas into a game with SOE is just awesome."

Devarajan said: "In a world increasingly dominated with games influenced by western Tolkien mythology, Ramayan will offer gamers a chance to experience a whole new universe of characters and archetypes derived from one of the oldest cultures on earth.

"Our mission at Virgin Comics has always been to allow this generation of Indian youth to have a creative platform through which to speak to the world. Through this collaboration with the likeminded visionaries at SOE, our young Indian creators will make gaming history worldwide."