Mafia Wars, Cricket, FIFA and WWE have helped turn gaming into big business in India. The market for gaming development in India is expected to witness a growth of 30% and reach Rs 19.4 billion by 2014. The Indian gaming market includes segments like mobile, online, console and PC gaming. Mobile gaming is currently dominating the market with 57% share in the total Indian gaming market.
A recent analysis done by Netscribes India, a management company, reveals that increase in disposable income, cost competitiveness, high speed internet, increasing PC and mobile penetration and growth in mobile value added services is driving growth in this sector.
Somil Gupta, managing director of Trine Games, said, "The market share of console gaming is pretty minimal, of about 6-7%. But India is a volume market so we have scope for immense growth."
Jehil Thakkar, KPMG executive director, Performance and Technology said, "For 2010, the market share for games was Rs 1,000 cr. We are expecting a growth of 30% in the next five years."
Certain bottlenecks for this segment have been pulling down profits. "The main challenges ahead for this industry are lack of availability of local content, companies' focus only on mythology driven games in India and piracy which is killing 90% of the business. The minimum cost of producing a decent game amounts to $1 million. The cost recovery is next to negligible because of piracy. Companies have started producing new games for the international market for maximum returns. If companies focus on innovative themes, the market is bound to grow because this industry experiences a growth of almost 110-120% every year," said Gupta.
"High price points for console games and poor broadband quality for online games need to be catered to. Mobile phone games have been driving growth continuously. The outlook looks fairly robust and we expect console gaming prices to come down heavily within four to five years which will instigate growth," added Jehil. According to Zynga, known for social games like Farmville and Mafia Wars, the growth momentum has been terrific for India. "We have a monthly count of 4.5 million players in India. To ensure that players enjoy our games we consolidate feedbacks on a weekly basis and make changes accordingly," said an employee of the company.
3 April 2011 — The Sunday Guardian.
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