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Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Shahrukh Khan, or King Khan as he is popularly known, is extremely choosy about the appearances he makes. So when he made an appearance for the launch of the Don mobile game, it really did not come as a surprise. The world's second largest mobile market has found a new ally in the world's largest entertainment industry. With more than 300 film releases every year, Bollywood has opened up a new and uncharted territory for mobile gaming.
The Indian scenario
According to Neeraj Roy, CEO, Hungama.com, the mobile gaming market in India is pegged at around Rs 70 crore today, out of which Bollywood-based gaming constitutes nearly Rs 10 crore. However, the Bollywood segment is expected to touch Rs 30 crore in next two years. Rang De Basanti, to Sarkar and even Home Delivery, are among the 60-odd movies that have been converted into mobile games.
The Indian mobile game business currently accounts for only five percent of the global wireless market, which is quite small when compared to the overseas gaming market. As Roy put it, “The kind of growth potential that the Indian mobile market is showing is huge and Bollywood is expected to act as a catalyst for this sector to boom. Indians are crazy about movies and music especially Bollywood films. Mobile content and gaming companies are now tapping this target audience.”
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Downloading Bollywood games can cost anything between Rs 50 to Rs 150 per download, and the revenue model is gaining in popularity. On an average, a movie game logs in 7,000 to 10,000 down-loads with the more popular ones even registering 25,000 downloads. However, how well the game is received depends on how popular the movie is and how well the game has been made. ”It all started with Sholay, which made it to the top of the download charts setting a new record in Bollywood content download, with the game crossing the 1,50,000 downloads mark on GSM operators and 8,00,000 on CDMA phones,” said Rajiv Hiranandani, CEO, mobile2win. With the movie games becoming a rage, service providers are also gearing up for the new frontier. Elaborating about the same Abhinadan Saikia, Spokesperson, Airtel said, “Airtel continues to establish relationships with some of the best gaming developers around the world. In this engagement, ideas, consumer expectations and trends are shared and discussed for the developers to work on and to come out with new games that will connect with the Indian audiences.”
The segment is all set to witness a big boom what with innovative campaigns being launched by mobile operators and the still untapped rural segment, which can change the current market scenario completely. That apart, with the NRI markets increasingly playing a substantial role in the success of Bollywood movies, these games also have a big target audience waiting to be tapped within the overseas Indian population.
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“The mobile gaming market in India is pegged at around Rs 70 crore today, out of which Bollywood-based gaming constitutes nearly Rs 10 crore. However, the Bollywood segment is expected to touch Rs 30 crore in next two years” |
| - Neeraj Roy, CEO, Hungama.com |
Worrying factor
While the sector is booming many are worried that it may not be as long lasting as they want it to be. One of the primary reasons that analysts are attributing to this thinking is the genre and the style on which most of the Hindi movies are produced. Most Bollywood movies provide minimal scope for developing a game centered on the flick. On the other hand, Hollywood routinely churns out movies like Batman, Superman and Spiderman to name a few, which fit perfectly into the genres of mobile games.
Talking about the unpredict-ability of the business Vishal Gondal, CEO, Indiagames.com said, “Bollywood remains an unpredictable business as not many Bollywood films can be used for games as most of them are based on love stories. We have to be very selective about movies and the kind of games we develop.”
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“Bollywood remains an unpredictable business as not many Bollywood films can be used for games as most of them are based on love stories. We have to be very selective about movies and the kind of games we develop” |
| - Vishal Gondal, CEO, Indiagames.com |
As of now the mobile gaming business is being promoted mainly by the service providers. Reliance started the trend by giving games free to all its CDMA subscribers, after seeing the popularity they started charging for downloads. But with the booming business the revenue sharing between the content provider and service provider is still a major pain.
Operators such as Airtel and Orange update the 1,000-odd games twice a week. And though gaming contributes a small share of revenues to the operators, its share in the value-added services is increasing manifold ever year.
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“It all started with Sholay, which made it to the top of the download charts setting a new record in Bollywood content download, with the game crossing the 1,50,000 downloads mark on GSM operators and 8,00,000 on CDMA phones” |
| - Rajiv Hiranandani, CEO, mobile2win |
Yet, content providers like Hungama.com, Mauj.com, Indiangames do not seem to be happy. They are unhappy about the fact that in these competitive times, a lot of effort goes in conceptualizing, designing, producing and marketing a mobile game. And while they put in all the efforts the revenue sharing model is still tilted towards the service providers.
The way ahead
Gaming is still restricted to a certain age group but it could take off with 3G. According to a Nasscom report, the mobile game development industry is a $100 million business in India and is growing at 100 percent year on year basis. By 2010 industry is expected to be worth $500 million. Indian companies could book an additional $130 million in meeting local demand for mobile games by then up from the current $20 million.
Talking about the future of this segment industry analysts note that real growth in mobile gaming based on Bollywood games will come from the rural areas. Another reason the mobile gaming market will grow in India is that it satisfies the aspirations of the common man.
- Connect news bureau
Source: DQ Channels
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