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Follow UsNEW DELHI: Slowdown and an opportunity in the IT industry up for grabs? This
is about the multi-billion dollar gaming industry of which India can get a fair
share of the market. What more. World gaming leaders are looking at India with a
great deal of expectation. For one, the low cost of development in India has now
become legendary. Second, games require a lot of imagination and creativity to
weave a story with characters that appeal to the audience. India's vast
mythological background give an edge over other competing nations in games
development. "Besides, India represents mysticism to the West and therefore
Indian creations are looked upon with a huge deal of expectation," says
Manvendra Shukul, Escosoft Interactive head and principal consultant.
Already a large number of Indian developers have flocked to the UK
specifically to help develop games. Britain with a population of 57 million sold
36 million games during 1996-99. A billion-pound industry, it is growing at
20-30 per cent annually, but it does not have the expertise to develop games on
its own.
Yet India's presence in this sector is almost non-existent. Except for a few
names: Pentamedia-promoted PurpleDrop based in US, Mumbai-based Indiagames.com
and Delhi-based Escosoft promoted by the Escorts Group--development activities
in India have been mostly restricted to casual gaming which is non-interactive
and mostly online.
Others like Aptech has only expressed its intent to foray into this market.
Figures suggest that the international games market is slated for big times.
At present the total games market is worth $18.7 billion, inclusive of the
hardware sales (source: www.gamesinvestor.co.uk
).
An IDC report projects that the sale of computer and video games is slated to
reach an astonishing $16.9 billion by 2003. This estimate does not include an
estimated $1.1 billion from online games revenue. "Although some analysts
would regard this as extremely optimistic and even if the actual number is only
two-third of the IDC estimates, the gaming industry software revenue will soon
leave the motion picture box office behind for good," said Interactive
Digital Software Association president Douglas Lowenstien, at the Electronic
Entertainment Exposition held in May this year.
It is no coincidence that during this year Microsoft (X-Box initiative) and
Intel amongst other big names in the industry have announced their foray into
the world of games.
That gaming is set for big times in the networked world is also evident from
the fact that the most widely used application on Japan's NTT DoCoMo was found
to be games. This has given rise to a flurry of activities among the developer
community to develop games appropriate for mobile devices.
Analysts say the opportunity for Indian developers now is to align with
Western publishers and console-makers to develop games. The most exciting
possibility in developing games is that products from smaller developers can
suddenly seize center-stage upstaging established characters since gaming
preferences are very volatile.
Industry watchers say it is prudent for Indian developers to leave the
marketing to international publishers as their distribution networks are already
in place. Besides, publishers will also give feedback regarding the kinds of
games to develop. Says PurpleDrop CEO Ashok Desai "Game designers in India
will have to go beyond local and regional themes to make them more interesting
and globally acceptable."
There are no specific figures for India's share in the global gaming market.
Nasscom pegs the size of the gaming and animation market at $200 million during
2000-01. But recognizing the huge potential in gaming Nasscom plans to hold an
exclusive event on games during this year. Both Escosoft Interactive and
Indiagames.com have been developing games for publishers in the US and the
UK--the two big markets for gaming. PurpleDrop will use licensed characters from
Pentamedia, the Pandavas and Sindbad the sailor, to develop games.
A key imperative for Indian developers now is to be able to develop their own
gaming engine. There are around 600 gaming engines available and some of them
are very expensive. The cost of licensing a good gaming engine forms a
substantial cost of the development. Says Shukul, "The cost of licensing a
good game engine could be as high as $2,500 per game."
The games market in India
The games market in the country is still at its nascent stage. Although no
formal study on the market has been done, industry sources estimate the size to
be in the range of Rs 18-Rs 24 crore which is expected to grow to Rs 100 crore
in three years time. What's exciting is that the market is growing at an annual
average of about 30-40 per cent.
Today most leading games international games publishers have a presence in
the country through their distributors. But there is hardly any promotional
activity by the publishers nor any immediate plans to set up direct presence in
the country as the current volumes do not justify investments.
The most widely quoted deterrents to the growth of the industry is the low
level of PC penetration and high costs of PC games. The rampant availability of
pirated CDs also adversely impact the growth of the industry. Console-based
games are virtually non-existent in the country although Sega has recently made
moves to have a presence here.
However certain indicators suggest that the gaming market in the country is
set to boom.
An IDC India's study diagnosing the usage pattern of home PC users revealed
that playing games was the second most widely used application, the first being
children's educational applications. With the home segment emerging as the
fastest growing segment in the country growing at a CAGR of 71 per cent during
1996-01 (MAIT-IMRB), there are happy days ahead for the gaming industry.
Second, contrary to popular belief that games are essentially played by
children, gamers in India comprise the 14 - 45 age group with a large number of
them playing online games. Although serious online games forming virtual groups
are practically non-existent due to bandwidth problems, online gaming is very
popular among office-going population and is set to take off in a huge way.
More and more corporates are looking at interactive games to be used in
product branding as consumers interact with the brand while playing games. For
instance, in its flagship product--the Yoddha–help (or energy) to the gamer
comes in the form of refreshment which is a bottle of Pepsi.
Indiagames.com had also undertaken branding campaigns for Four Square and
Godfrey Philips by setting up game kiosks across various cities for a specified
time-period. It has signed with Bheeshma International promoted by Mukesh Khanna
to develop games based on the character Shaktimann and with film-producer BR
Chopra to use the characters of Mahabharata to develop games.
Adds Gondal, "Price is not necessarily a deterrent. It is also important
for the theme and characters to appeal to gamers." Indiagames has been
developing various online games according to the mood of the nation.
Next could be a game on popular sentiments like a domestic war in the family
or a game playing nasty tricks on the monstrous boss at office. The creative
possibilities are immense as are the business propositions, both on the domestic
as well as the international mart. So, are we game?