Evolution of Indian Gaming Industry
[Music]
games have been a part of our life since
times immemorial
mankala which is regarded as the world’s
oldest game that originated in the
country of jordan around 6000 bce
was played in by ancient comedians games
bring people together
in unusual ways and have been evolving
in different types
over the course of years and with the
help of technology the mainstream
thought that comes to our mind when we
think of games is that of video games
the definition of a video game goes like
the following an electronic game that
involves interaction with a user
interface or an input device such as a
joystick controller keyboard or a motion
sensing device
in order to generate visual feedback for
a player this feedback is shown
on a video display screen such as a tv
set monitor
touch screen or a virtual reality
headset in recent times
video games are often augmented with
audio feedback delivered through
speakers or headphones
and sometimes with other types of
feedback such as haptic technology
as per a report from new zoo the firm
had estimated that in 2020 the global
games industry received a revenue of
159.3 billion dollars that is a 9.3
percent increase from the previous year
nuzu predicts that the market will
surpass 200 billion
dollars by the end of 2023. the video
games industry has been uh seeing an
interesting edition of different revenue
models as well
esports has been a real game changer for
the industry in recent times
india is also not far behind in this
race and by 2020
one it is estimated that it will reach
over 1 billion dollars in revenue from
the video games industry
let us explore what made this possible
over the years
when the iphone was launched it proved
revolutionary for the entire industry
as it democratized the way for new
developers no longer were you required
to go
through only big publishers who had
established distribution channels in
order to have a strong
game sales you could now simply open up
a new developer account upload your game
and wait for people to download your
game
if you were lucky enough and your game
got heavily downloaded you’d become an
overnight millionaire we have seen the
massively successful games profiting
massively from this democratization
not just the big names but also smaller
known developers made a good amount of
living
compared to the global scenario india
has seen a comparatively slower growth
but slow does not necessarily rule out
the fact that there has in fact been
growth in the industry
the revenue figures speak for themselves
one of the pivotal moments
that were defining moments for the
indian gaming industry was most
certainly the success of the game ludo
king the game showed that even by
staying true to our roots we can make a
huge difference
the game has ruled top charts for quite
a long time now
same has been the case with many new
game developers originating from india
who have created some amazing
experiences
another huge boost was given to this
industry by the telecom giant
go that is led by a prominent indian
billionaire mr mukesh ambani
he introduced india to cheap internet
services that catapulted the entire
smart 4 adoption which subsequently led
to an increase
in the consumption of games since they
are one of the largest entertainment
mediums
the bollywood industry has also been
actively looking at games
as a medium to promote their movies
there have been some big movie
franchises that have explored this
new form of entertainment as one of
their revenue sources as well as a way
to engage directly with their audiences
thereby creating a long-term relation
with them because of the recall value of
the games
not just mobile games but also hardcore
market of pc games is seeing a huge
boost
slowly but steadily people are investing
heavy amounts to create powerful
personal computers for themselves so
they can enjoy at their leisure time
the indian gaming market is also seeing
a sharp rise as
more and more awareness is being created
due to recent heavy penetration
of internet adoption over here some
people enjoy games just for the sake of
entertainment but a minor few have also
started making entire careers out of
gaming
one of the most popular ways to earn
from playing games nowadays is
streaming a huge wave of professional
gamers have taken this
lucrative opportunity by leveraging
popular free streaming platforms such as
youtube and twitch to stream
directly to an audience waiting to
consume their content
gone are the days when people used to
get entertained only by watching either
cricket or football
on television sets nowadays people
prefer watching everything on the
internet and so has the narrative for
traditional sports changed significantly
these days people enjoy watching other
people playing video games rather than
watching a football or a cricket match
thanks to big indian streamers we are
now exposed to a wide variety of
popular video games as well generally
people consume
all kinds of content right from someone
getting frustrated with a game
and breaking the monitor to someone
playing amazingly and winning
tournaments for the country
india is getting to enjoy a wide
spectrum of content the educational
segment is also accepting games and game
development as a profession
iit recently announced that they will be
accepting game design and development as
a part of their curriculum
there is a huge shift in mentality in
india that is being undertaken currently
due to the wide acceptance of game
development and gaming
as a career this will give an impetus to
an industry that was generally outcast
earlier and
that wasn’t given the attention that it
rightfully deserves
making games is no joke making games
requires a wide
array of talent a typical game
development process involves thinking of
the core game loop
making art writing code and then it is
followed by intensive testing and
marketing
once the game is developed there is a
next wave of further iterations which
involve taking customer feedback
and improving the game over time it is
quite literally a full-time job and
developers are paid hundreds and
thousands of dollars per month to make
games
the same is now happening in india we
also have an advantage of our population
over 50 percent of indian population is
below the age of 25
and 60 of the nation’s gamers are under
25
years of age as well the gaming user
base surpassed 365 million
in march 2020 as per kpmg’s media and
entertainment report
mobile users have also grown
significantly mobile users form an
overwhelming
85 percent of the industry followed by
the pc users
at 11 and tablet users at four percent
india has over 560 million internet
users making it the second largest
internet consumer
investors can expect a 10-year growth
outlook with a 3.8 billion dollar
valuation by the end of 2024.
the first nine months of 2020 saw india
rise to a number one spot in the mobile
games download section
worldwide clocking in 7.3 billion
installs and raking in 17
of the market share of install volumes
as per sensor towers data
at its peak pubg mobile had an estimated
34 million indians playing daily
indians alone were responsible for
downloading the battle royal genre
title a whopping 175 million times
the recent covet 19 pandemic has also
given a huge impetus to this industry
primarily because the kovite 19 pandemic
saw a shift in media and entertainment
consumption trends
with kpmg again estimating a 20
contraction in 2020 in typical segments
such as
film tv and print in contrast they
foresee a rapid change to gaming and
digital media consumption
projecting global growth bouncing up to
33 to reach up to 25.4 billion dollars
in 2021.
a huge wave of new investors as well are
looking forward to invest in this gaming
industry
up until 2010 there were just a handful
of game development companies in india
fast forward to now we have over 500
plus game development companies
and growing india is a population of a
billion plus people and we have no
shortage of creativity on us
the same is being observed in the games
that are made in india
indian stories and traditional games are
now being made
digitally and being enjoyed by people
all around the world there is a huge
wave of new developers
who want to make content on indian
mythologies on indian stories and want
to bring this to the attention of the
audience in india there is also a huge
support given by the indian government
for
educating people about this industry
thereby giving a further boost
to the education segment in order to
create more game developers in the
country
india is now looked upon as a country
that can
actually create great narrative
experiences we have seen some really
great popular games coming up on steam
as well as epic games that are made by
indian developers
the narrative is simply changing
primarily because nowadays we
are making games that are based on our
mythology
as well as the traditional companies are
not just servicing other companies but
they are also making their own products
we have seen some great potential in
terms of the growth in this industry
as well as some big big companies have
got acquired by international companies
a recent example was dhruva interactive
that is regarded as one of the
oldest game development companies that
got acquired by rockstar games
that created the gta franchise parents
have also started believing in this
industry
today developers have access to a vast
global market with huge financial
returns
which has made the gaming industry very
attractive for youngsters
tools such as unity coco studies unreal
engine
have made it very very easy for anyone
to pick up
game development as a skill you just
need to invest your time you just need
to take out some time from your
busy schedule or your school schedule or
your college schedule or your job
schedule
you just put in one or one and a half
hours a day and over a period of a month
you can easily pick up game development
you just need to have that
passion you just need to have a core
understanding of how games work
because this industry is very very
technical
there are a lot of job fields in this
industry primarily
game programming game design game art
game design and game art are two
different things game design is how
you structure the game how you think of
the game as a set of rules
game art is to actually create assets
there is game testing
there is game marketing so there is a
wide variety of job fields in this
industry itself so that is why
slowly steadily indians are becoming
aware of this
industry as being a serious business
rather than just a pastime hobby
this has been observed in the west and
was a no-brainer that india would also
see a growth in terms of game
development industry
because you see each and every one
nowadays plays a game
beat that nerdy kid sitting in the
corner of a house and just enjoying game
the entire day or you just commuting on
a journey
uh taking out your phone while being on
a rickshaw ride or on a train and
playing subway surfers for that matter
so gaming is taking place all over and
all around us
and gaming is also evolving in terms of
a lot of different
technological advancements such as vr ar
mr these are all
amazing uh technological masterpieces
that are shaping up eventually
and are set to revolutionize the entire
gaming industry not just in india but
worldwide
however india is on its way to take a
huge pie of that market huge
share of that market and shine brighter
than ever
the business side of things in gaming is
also taking shape in
and is looking very positive nazara
technologies which
is also one of the oldest game
development companies and also the
biggest from india recently got listed
on the stock exchange
that is they launched their own ipo and
got listed this is a huge milestone huge
stepping stone
for the industry because of the cheap
internet available nowadays it is very
easy for anyone to pick
any skill and this also is true for game
development
any person can just go on to youtube and
type in
a lot of people might have heard of this
company called india games
india games at its peak was one of the
biggest game development companies from
india back in 2012 or 2013.
this company got acquired by disney for
a whopping 200 million dollars
and this actually shed a lot of you know
interesting lights on the indian game
development scenario
since 2012 till now there have been a
really slow trajectory of growth
but slow as i mentioned earlier does not
necessarily mean that there is no growth
now all of this makes me very hopeful
for the future and
me personally being a part of this
industry would definitely urge you guys
to
take a look at this industry and i hope
with this talk i have inspired you to
support this industry
and if you are interested in being a
part of this industry i urge you to take
a leap of faith and go ahead
keep calm and game on