Gaming industry in India: the latent goldmine

Abstract

As Aamir Khan prepares to launch the super hit south Indian remake of Ghajini with anew avatar and a brand new haircut FX Labs will be releasing the Ghajini video game a month prior to the release of the film where all the avid gamers and the Khan fan following will be able to imitate their cult hero through the virtual world of gaming. However this trend is not a very new concept and found its inception with the launch of a game based on the nerve wrecking stunt based film Dhoom that had all the thrills and feat of the original movie with the additional offering of choosing the role to play in the game. Going beyond the realm of movies gaming industry has diverted attention to other themes to simulate the concepts on a 3-D design platform to create a simulated game. The most notable one of them is from the recent political development where Manmohan Singh, the Indian Prime Minister faced a trust vote in the Lok Sabha in the wake on the Left withdrawing support on Indo-US nuclear deal issue that influenced FX Labs to design Singh Is King based on the same story line. The examples in this line are numerous and are primarily based on the general market trend of the US themed games not having a strong penetration among Indian consumers. These recent developments clearly reflect that the Indian online gaming industry has a market to cater to that has forced the companies to come up with innovative and familiar topic based games like Gully Cricket , Bombay Taxi , and Bollywood Buck was . The internet penetration in the country although still is way below the average of a developed world, the growing trend of the young generation getting addicted to the web based games is highly significant and offers a huge potential customer base for the future. Along with the growth of web based gaming the companies have also discovered other major avenues to reach the customers including mobile phones, stand alone PC based games and console applications. It was 2002 that saw when Sony Play Station Portable and PS2 getting introduced in the country followed by the launch of Microsoft's Xbox in August 2006 heralding the emergence of console gaming in the country. Although the console applications are prohibitively costly the new age generation gamers of the country comprising mainly the teen agers are gradually getting oriented towards this format of gaming which is unique in its experience delivery. The market in this sector has been roping in different communicational medium where Microsoft has opted for celebrity endorsement through Akshay Kumar and Yuvraj Singh promote games like International Cricket 2007 in sharp contrast to Sony who depends on direct marketing strategy through roadshows displaying the benefits of play station.2It is mobile gaming or games played through the cell phones that forms a significant part of the Indian gaming industry owing to the larger penetration of cellular phones into the mainstay of Indian population and also the growing number of available sophisticated premium models with higher powered processors that allow faster downloads, quality 3-D graphics and advanced audio capabilities. The market leader in this sector is Airtel followed by Vodafone and Reliance and the trio depend on majorly movies or cricket to be used as themes for design of the games. Games like King Kong , Range De Basanti and 2020 Cricket are some of the most notable games in this sector. Traditionally a male bastion this sector typically employs GSM as the major technology for downloads. The fourth segment within this sector is the PC gaming or games that are played primarily on personal computers through CD ROM or DVD. This is the traditional mode of gaming as used since the time of inception and has had quite a significant impact in India, especially bolstered by the increasing number of PC sales owing to the reduced tariff on import duties of hardware components. Microsoft Game Studio conducted pan India PC gaming competition Halo (2003) and War of a million (2005) that showed extreme positive enthusiasm among the participants denoting the popularity of the same in the country. In terms of mix of the Indian gaming market NASSCOM estimates mobile gaming to be the most dominating segment accounting for 53% of the total market share followed by console gaming at 20%, pc gaming at 17% and online gaming at 10%.3 However the same study predicts that the share of PC and console gaming to go down due to the increased penetration of mobile phones and internet into the heartland of India ushering in an era of mobile and online gaming where the former is expected to increase its share to as high as 68% by 2009.Realizing the potential growth factors of the gaming market in the country NASSCOM started its own animation and gaming forum that works in unison with the Indian Government of Information and Broadcasting to support the development phase of this nascent industry. Government intervention is crucial to this sector because strong regulatory pressure is needed to prohibit the single most concern of piracy where pirated versions of the games sell at 10% of the original price causing major loss of revenue to the producers.