PUBG, Candy Crush, Farmville, and Criminal Case, Ludo King, Tambola, Teen Patti are some of the games which have had their own share of popularity and continue to remain popular. And, being an Indian citizen you would have played at least one of them.
India has the highest PUBG players with more than 4.2 crs Indian players and is among the top five online mobile gaming countries. The lock-down on account of Covid-19, led to downloading various gaming apps on every phone and its only then the craze for gaming apps which was already there came into the light of the general public.
But what led to the growth Indian Gaming Industry? What’s the future of the gaming industry? What are the Top trends?
History and Growth of Gaming Industry
I. Indian gaming industry is currently valued at USD 930 million and is expected to grow at 41 per cent annually
II. The number of game development companies in India today stands at around 275. This number was a mere 25 in the year 2010.
The following have been main key drivers to the growth of this industry:
i. India is only second to China in terms of the number of internet users:
ii. Availability of smart phones at low cost leading to increase in smart phone users:
Top Trends and Preferences
Cloud gaming Service: Apple Arcade and Google Stadia are out to achieve an on-demand Netflix-style library for gaming titles from hundreds of studios and publishers. Some of the famous cloud gaming services are Shadow (French startup Blade), GeForce Now (Nvidia).
Desi Games: Local Indianised preferences of users, desi game developers and publishers are creating a niche with unique locally themed offerings. Building titles in multiple local languages and themes like big movie franchises like Baahubali, festivals, seasons, etc. to attract the local customers. Some of the famous games are Rummy, Poker, Teen Pati etc.
Big Franchises, Small Screen: Attempting to replicate a console experience on smartphones has typically resulted in a cluttered interface and less intuitive controls, but with some innovation in design, we can expect better experiences and more franchises to follow over to mobile, like Call of Duty.
Social Gaming Craze: The app, which lets users discover friends, play games, host ‘voice parties’ and earn real rewards. The social gaming craze actually began with Farmville at the turn of the decade, but now newer apps like Restaurant Story, Township, Words with Friends, Habbo, Ludo King, Animal Boyfriend, and others are gaining in popularity.
How do these games monetize?
There are several strategies that gaming companies adopt to earn revenue:
Free-to-play: In this the game is provided to users at no cost. Revenue is earned when users want extra features in the game, such as virtual goods and premium features.
In-game advertising: Excess advertisement within the game can be annoying to users but this model serves as one way to earn revenue. Here, users get to access the full game from the beginning, but ads are shown from time to time.
Demo and full version: Game studios often release a free trial or limited (demo) version of their game to give a teaser and hook the audience to the full game. Users can then pay to unlock the entire game.
Play-to-win: In this gamers who pay extra for premium items get advantage over the free gamers. Free gamers may need to spend considerable time to unlock these premium items.
Pay to play:In this gamers can use actual money buy in-game coins, which enables them to play a certain game. On adda52.com, an online card gaming portal, users can use actual money to buy chips, which would allow them to play paid games and tournaments.
Other ways to make revenue include co-branding within the game and selling game merchandise. French video game company Ubisoft has two development studios in India.
Major Investments Made:
India’s gaming industry has attracted about USD 350 million in investments from venture capital firms between 2014 and first few months of 2020, growing at a CAGR of 22 per cent. Some of the investments made are stated as below:
i. American video game publisher Rockstar Games acquired Dhruva Interactive, an Indian video game development which was later merged into Rockstar India Studio
ii. Kolkata-headquartered online games platform Baazi Games plans to invest US$5 million in India’s gaming market in 2020. Investment will focus on gaming start-ups to nurture the latest gaming technology. The online portal offers card-based games, such as Poker Baazi and Rummy Baazi, and fantasy cricket Balle Baazi, on its online platforms.
iii. Noida-headquartered ecommerce and payments firm PayTM and Alibaba Group’s Hong Kong based AGTech Holdings formed a joint venture in 2018 to launch Gamepind – a localized platform hosting popular casual and sports games
iv. Chinese gaming company Youzu Interactive entered the Indian market in 2017 with plans to invest US$10 million to develop local games and forge partnerships.
v. Vietnam-based game developer StomStudio has partnered with Indian game distributor and publisher, Gamesbond, to develop casual arcade games.
vi. Indian gaming companies like Moonfrog labs and Octro have seen investments from top venture capitalist firms, such as Sequoia Capital.
vii. The Chinese internet and gaming giant, Tencent, is also considering investing in India’s gaming market.
viii. Reliance Jio had announced its Jio Fiber set-top box to support “console-like” gaming, which will enable newer entertainment and gaming experience.
ix. Bharti Airtel and NODWIN Gaming, South Asia’s esports company, has announced a partnership to further grow esports in India.
Future of Gaming Industry
In the words of Mota Bhai: “There is a huge potential for gaming to grow in India, gaming will be bigger than music, movies and television shows put together.” While the gaming sector is only in its nascent stage, at best, he said that there is a huge opportunity for growth thanks to increasing penetration of the internet in the country.
As of now, all the elements are indicative of a very bright future for the Indian Gaming Industry– a captive target audience, the rise in disposable income, synchronized industry efforts and an ecosystem that is extremely conducive to growth. It is no longer a question of “how would the industry boom” but “When will the industry boom”?
Data source: report “Gaming-India Story” by KPMG, Dataquest, A Junior VC, CNBC ,Business Line, Techstory, India Briefing.
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