BANGALORE: The gaming software market is still in its nascent stage in the country. While PC penetration has increased quite significantly in the recent past, gaming software still is a long way from achieving mass proliferation among end-users and partners. This is primarily because of piracy and high price tags.

Aladdin Multimedia Marketing Director Zakir Hussain says, "There are several issues with distribution of game titles. Since most of the publishers are not in the country, distributors do not hold the copyrights for these titles." This is perhaps one of the main reasons for the growing popularity of pirated gaming software in the market today.

Also, partners who represent or distribute gaming software currently don’t have the rights to initiate any kind of legal action against those involved in piracy. This is simply because they don’t hold the copyrights for these products in the country.

"The pirated market is growing day by day and this is a serious threat to gaming software business," said a spokesperson from Cyber Multimedia. This segment can really prosper if publishers of gaming titles become serious about the Indian market. Additionally, publishers still do not consider India as a focus market and hence avoid launching products with competitive pricing.

Some key gaming title resellers in Mumbai had once taken the initiative of forming an association to deal with these issues. But it did not work out. Since the business generated is little, people lost interest in taking a proactive stand against issues confronting them.

A big hurdle that is discouraging publishers from coming into this country, is the complicated import formalities involved. This is also why gaming consoles like PS2 and Xbox have not clicked in the country through the legal channel. However, gray market sales of these consoles are very good.

Currently the size of the legal multimedia software market is around Rs 20 crore. This includes both gaming as well as educational titles. Pure gaming products through the legal channel would be around Rs 12-14 crore, according to market estimates. They add that gaming software market, including the gray market, would be roughly to the tune of Rs 40 crore.

Despite the earlier setback, resellers in Mumbai have once again decided to take proactive measures to combat piracy. Milestone Interactive Software Chairman and CEO Jayant Sharma said, "Since we are exclusive distributors for many gaming vendors, we can initiate police action against the piracy. Also, we are trying to make our vendors aware about these issues, which are affecting sales."

Other factors like high prices, cost involved in upgrading PCs, time lag in launching latest versions and user awareness level are also seen as major hurdles for gaming software growth in the country. Today any game that is as hot selling as Unreal II, Need for Speed or Quake II comes between Rs 1,200 to Rs 1,500. The pirated versions of these products are available for Rs 300 or even less.

The average vanilla PC sold in the home segment often carries basic components, which is unsuitable for graphic games. "These machines are not compatible with some of the high-end gaming software as it requires advanced components like graphic cards," said Candella Software Director Ajith Ram.

According to him, to run these high-end games, users need to have an advanced system priced at Rs 40,000 or above. This calls for higher investment for an average home user, who is unlikely to go for it. In UK and the US, penetration of gaming software is higher because of the popularity of console-based concept. Gaming consoles unlike PC-based gaming devices are independent units and offer a host of other functionalities like VCD/DVD player, network gaming and so on.

Consoles are also catching up in the Indian market and market sources believe that there is scope for its growth in the country. "We expect that with the launch of PS2 in the near future, demand for console-based gaming will go up in the country," said Jadooworks Business Development Manager Raj Gopal Iyer.

(With inputs from Goldie in Mumbai)