NGDC 2011: State of Gaming Industry In India

[Ravi budhwar]

Starting with some stats in the discussion of 'State of Gaming Industry in India', Sameer Bangara, COO, Indiagames said that there are 100 million data connected phone users in India today, out of which 60 million users are active on a monthly basis and 12-15 million users are paying for content they are consuming. Also DTH is another very exciting gaming platform that doesn’t exist anywhere else and today stands at 35 million installed user base in India.

Taking the discussion on DTH forward Vishal Chinchankar VP Digital Media & VAS Head – DTH, Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group said India today has 100 million cable and satellite households and this number is growing at the rate of 30% per year. By 2015 pan India will go digitized. “From our subscriber base 30% play games, 20% have played all the games we are offering and on an average we have 50,000 users spending INR 30 per month for gaming,” he added.

Bringing the perspective of the services sector in the gaming industry into discussion Manvendra Shukul, CEO, Lakshya Digital said that the work coming to India has changed from just creation of pots and pans to complex assets like environments and characters. We have proven the kind of quality we can deliver and that we make game development affordable. “Today parents consider Gaming as a viable career option for their kids, I would say that is the state of gaming industry in India today,” he added.

Rahul Razdan, President, iBibo said the social networking and socializing will completely move to mobile in days to come and the number of data connected phones would be much larger than the number data connected computer. What is required right now is a robust ecosystem of content developers for this growing platform.
Inspite of coming from the console, side Atin Bose, Country Head, Sony Computer Entertainment India felt that Indian developers need to have a multiplatform approach to fully monetize their IPs.
http://www.gamingxpress.com/newsitem/items/NGDC_2011_State_of_Gaming_Industry_In_India.html