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Gaming market poised for growth

The gaming market in India, although at a nascent stage, is on the verge of a take-off as consumers switch to mobile phones and PCs for their dose of entertainment, says Abhinav Singh.

The Indian gaming market is set for a big leap, and yes, it is mainly the mobile telephone penetration that is going to drive this market. It is believed that mobile gaming will lead to an increase in adoption of non-mobile gaming segments. Rising prosperity levels and high disposable incomes of Indians, not only in metros but also in small B and C class cities, will drive the gaming market further.

Harry Ahn, General Manager, IT, Samsung India says, “The gaming industry in India is showing strong growth and we expect 20-30 percent of serious gamers to be added every year. This year, we expect at least three lakh serious gamers. Events like the World Cyber Games, better computing power, greater access to computers and the growing awareness on gaming—all are contributing to the growth of gaming in India.” Keeping this in mind, gaming was chosen as a focus area at Bangalore IT.com 2005. Let us take a look as to why gaming market is getting all the attention.

The next big thing

Mobile gaming will be driven by Java and data-enabled phones. With mobile phones having overtaken the number of PCs in India, mobile gaming is catching on quickly Rajesh Rao Chief Executive Officer Dhruva Interactive

Gaming is not restricted to televisions or computers. It is becoming an inextricable part of mobile telephones, with sophisticated mobile telephones making inroads into every nook and corner of the country. The total number of mobile subscribers has crossed that of landline subscribers and with mobile tariffs being one of the lowest in the world, the stage is set for the growth of mobile gaming. Market sources says that the mobile gaming business in India accounts for about five percent of the global wireless market and is expected that the Indian mobile gaming market will generate annual revenue of about $336 million by 2009. According to market sources there are more than 20 million gaming-capable handsets in India.

The latest trend is that people are increasingly playing games on their mobile handsets not only during their leisure time or when they are commuting but also at home, where they already have other modes of entertainment. Recent surveys suggest that people like simple, easy-to-play games, as can be expected in a market that is just getting exposed to mobile gaming. According to the projections, as many as 78.6 million people will be playing mobile games by 2009, and game downloads will have increased more than ten-fold from the current levels. Rajesh Rao, Chief Executive Officer, Dhruva Interactive states, “Mobile gaming will be driven by Java and data-enabled phones and with mobile phones having outnumbered the number of PCs in India, mobile gaming is the in thing. The country’s youth is expecting a compelling gaming experience on their mobile handsets.”

A boost from broadband

Industry sources say that the Indian gaming industry excluding mobile gaming is close to $50 million. A huge growth opportunity will come about through PC and broadband penetration. Rao says, “With the introduction of broadband at cheap rates and the introduction of sub-Rs 10,000 PCs, we can expect growth in the Indian gaming market. Many mobile users are expected to shift to PCs for a large-screen gaming experience in the long run.”

Gaming goes online

According to Nasscom, apart from the games that are computer and console-based, a relatively new segment is the massively multi-player online games (MMOG), which has been a highly successful business model in Asia. MMOG enables hundreds of thousands of players to simultaneously interact with a game via the Internet. Online gaming is now said to be slowly eating into the PC-based gaming market, mainly dominated by Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2), Nintendo, and Microsoft X-box. Sources claim that Indian players could become a dominant force in the global online gaming market in the future, due to the high volume of online game development taking place in the country.

Online games include the more casual genres of games, such as card or board games. In online gaming, the developer creates a concept, develops a game, and then licences it to an Internet portal. The portal then markets it to the consumer. Market sources observe that MMOG game sub-segment represents the hottest growth potential in the Indian gaming market. The reason is that it side-steps the problem of piracy, which has stifled the growth of the computer games market in India. Analysts estimate that around 90 percent of the computer games titles in use in India are illegal versions.

Destination for game development

India is fast emerging as a key one-stop destination for game development. A typical game title today takes around 24 months to make and will have a production budget of $4 to $10 million. The game industry is under pressure to reduce development time and the cost of production. Reason enough for major publishers and studios to look at outsourcing development. This is where the Indian game developers with their world-class quality and game development experience step in. India has excellent programmers and the rapid growth of the market is adding to the allure. The Indian market has four to six large game development companies with 50 seats and more, while there are another 100-odd small game developers with five to ten seats, which are dedicated to developing applications for the wireless market. Leading Indian game companies like Indiagames, Dhruva Interactive, Paradox and Mobile2Win develop for a range of interfaces such as PC, console, wireless and online. Outsourcing to India in this sector can be divided into three broad segments: Computer games that are delivered on disks or CD-RoMs and played on a PC, video games that use dedicated consoles to play the game and wireless games, which are primarily the games played on mobile phones.

India has carved a niche for itself even in the console market dominated by giants like Sony’s Playstation 2, Nintendo’s Game Cube and Microsoft’s Xbox. While a majority of the 100-odd small-sized game development studios in the country are service-oriented and offer a low-cost solution to the international client, the big studios are bullish on quality and do not use low costs as their plank while making a pitch. Dhruva Interactive released Pat Cash Tennis in the United Kingdom during Wimbledon. Vodafone gave it the Game of the Week position during the finals and there were goodies like Pat Cash-signed tennis racquets, T-shirts and bandannas. Recently, Dhruva released two games that were highly successful in the international market. These are Geoff Grammond’s Grand Prix 4 (PC) and TOCA Pro Race Driver. The company has also worked on Microsoft Game Studios’ Xbox and launched its own tennis game for mobile phones recently.

abhinav@expresscomputeronline.com