League of Extraordinary Gamers, a gaming centre in Bengaluru’s tony suburb of Indira Nagar, is humming with activity on a Thursday afternoon. Bathed in a mellow green light, it has the slow buzz of gamers murmuring to each other on their headsets mid-game. A quiet group of spectators is transfixed by the action on the screens. 联盟的玩家,游戏中心在班加罗尔的英迪拉Nagar托尼郊区,充斥着活动在周四下午。沐浴在柔和的绿光,缓慢的嗡嗡声的耳机中局玩家互相窃窃私语。一个安静的观众被屏幕上的动作惊呆了。
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The gaming centre, better known as LXG, was upgraded last year with the latest gaming gear and enhanced connectivity. Now, with dozens of stations, this gaming enclave is a nod to the growing interest in online gaming in India<\/a>. From games as simple as Candy Crush<\/a> and Subway Surfers played casually on smart phones to Dota 2 and Counter-Strike<\/a> duked out by hardcore players, a gaming revolution is on in India.
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\nIt isn’t just swish places like LXG that are attracting swarms of gamers. A slew of esports companies like Mumbai-based Cobx Gaming and Bengaluru-based GamingMonk are queuing up to attract the attention of curious and professional gamers alike. The industry struggled for growth for much of the past two decades — bogged down by poor connectivity and costly hardware — but there’s a spring in the step of companies and gamers.
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\nOlder companies such as Nazara Games, having raised $51 million in funding from IIFL Special Opportunities Fund, is finalising a public listing, even as others such as Cobx have announced esports championships with prize money topping a crore of rupees. Meanwhile, JetSynthesys, which makes digital products and platforms for mobile phones, is using gaming as an arrowhead to make a technology leap. The firm has sewn up several joint venture agreements to deepen its presence, besides launching hit games such as Sachin Saga, with a couple of million downloads in under a month.
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\n“The Indian gaming industry has taken its time finding its secret sauce,” says Rajan Navani, vice-chairman, JetSynthesys. “But the ingredients are all there now for the industry to grow rapidly.” For companies like his, this means phones have become cheaper and creaky wired broadband that the industry struggled with has given way to faster mobile broadband, with Reliance Jio acting as a game changer. The centre of gravity has moved from costly, console-based variants to an array of mobile phone-based games.
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\nGame Changer<\/strong>
\nOver the past two decades, gaming companies have slowly moved from outsourcing backend work to India to developing complete games from here (Zynga, for one) — and are now eyeing the local market. For years, the local market was negligible; consoles were expensive and access was limited. Then, PC gaming caught on, but computers too were costly (even today a good gaming rig can cost around `1 lakh) and the best gear — mouse, monitors, ear pieces — was unaffordable or simply unavailable. Even when broadband entered the scene, connections were slow and spotty. It is only in the last two years that a new wave of mobile gaming has caught on.
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\nAlong the way, other pieces of the mobile gaming market, such as small payments for games (or in-game power-ups and lives) have begun to gain traction. However, experts agree that there’s a long way to go. As Indians prefer to play free games, gaming firms, mobile operators and web giants such as Google are still figuring out how to squeeze more out of a growing band of gamers.
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\nGoogle, for one, thinks that there’s some forward momentum. “Indians download over a billion apps from the Play Store every month. With a user base so large, there is always tremendous opportunity for games of every genre to do well,” says Karan Gambhir, head of business development, Google Play Apps & Games. “We are always looking at ways to make the Play Store more relevant from every angle possible — payments is a critical one. Over the last year, we have launched carrier billing across Airtel, Idea and Vodafone and launched gift cards across 4,000+ retail locations and digital codes available at major online retailers.” Google is looking to solve other pain points for gamers too, he says. For one, Google works with game developers to have offline versions of their titles. It has also launched a guideline to help gaming companies build their products for markets like India, plagued by patchy connectivity. “With the latest version of Android, we also announced Android Oreo (Go Edition) for devices that may not have the processing capabilities of high-end devices. Games made for these devices will be built to work well even on smartphones having modest specifications,” he adds.
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\nAs the market has found fresh legs, investors have begun to hasten the pace of deal-making, Investments have begun to flow and M&A has begun to gather steam. Rajesh Rao, founder of Dhruva Interactive, a games studio in Bengaluru, says these are good omens. “After two decades of struggle, there have been a few signs — acquisitions, fund raising and establishment of joint ventures — that point to the industry finding its feet and preparing for rapid growth,” he says. Sitting in a room called The Birdcage in one of its city offices that was previously a foundry, Rao admits that a decade ago, the Indian gaming market was oversold to investors and with expectations failing to match reality, they stayed clear of it.
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\nDhruva, for example, was sold to Swedish art production company Starbreeze in December 2016, having raised little VC monies during its two-decade existence. “We sold out for a small profit,” he says, as coders and game designers get down to work. “Early players like us have put in the yards… now others can thrive.” Nazara Games, which is eyeing a `1,000 crore IPO, has already begun to hunt down these opportunities. The firm, backed by the likes of WestBridge Capital and stock market maven Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, has acquired Nodwin Gaming and taken a significant stake in HalaPlay, as it builds out a global gaming business from India. It is already in over 60 countries, with its games downloaded some 22 million times on Google’s Play Store.
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\n“M&A activity is a welcome sign in any vertical as it exhibits the confidence of investors in the growing domestic market and the capability of the local talent to create scalable and sustainable business models,” says Nitish Mittersain, CEO, Nazara Games. “Nazara has been acting as catalyst to accelerate the development of gaming ecosystem in India by investing in promising startup teams, with our recent acquisition of Next Wave Multimedia and Nodwin Gaming.” The firm is far from done; officials say they continue to be on the lookout for M&A and investment opportunities within and outside India. “The mobile-first digital entertainment opportunity in emerging markets reaching out to over 2 billion consumers is massive.”
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\nChanging macro factors are aiding the growth of the gaming market, but there is also an attitudinal shift that is helping the cause of these companies. Vageesh Bhan, 27, is a gamer who has evolved into a sought-after voice artist for many gaming studios. As a high schooler, he recounts being caught and dragged out by the ear from a gaming cafe a few days before his board exams. By that time, he and his friends were spending an inordinate amount of time at gaming joints. While he played a fair share of games — ranging from Duck Hunt to Dota — his future lay as a games caster and voiceover artist.
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\nAshwin Haryani, cofounder of GamingMonk, has seen the shift happen over the last couple of years. He says in several schools in Delhi, administrators are proactively adding gaming zones for students rather than trying to make them stop playing. “They want to organise tournaments for their students on campus.”
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\nPlay Time Numbers too confirm that the tide is turning in the gaming industry’s favour. A survey conducted by Newzoo, a provider of gaming industry market intelligence, reveals that 83% of the total online population in India plays games across platforms such as mobile, laptop or console, with an almost equal representation from men and women. However, the gender gap is relatively narrow in the mobile gaming segment compared with laptops and consoles. 83% men and 77% women play mobile games. For more than one-third Indians, mobile gaming is part of their day-to-day life — 40% men and 35% women play mobile games at least five days a week.
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\nAs more Indians are more game to play, companies are piecing together an assortment of business models to snare the growing audience’s interest. While some companies such as Cobx and GamingMonk are building gaming platforms and infrastructure, others such as Mech Mocha and 99Games are focusing on the mobile gamer. Chennai-based startup Playtonia, meanwhile, has two revenue streams — one focused on organising large esports tournaments and the other on giving gamers a cutting-edge playing experience. While about 22,000 gamers have used the firm’s services so far, the founders are aiming for the moon. “We want to have a million users on our platform by 2021,” says Anshumann Pandey, cofounder, Playtonia. “We think the esports revolution is just getting started.”
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\n“Indian gamers have a long way to go to match the skills of their global peers,” says Rajdip Gupta, cofounder, Cobx. “We want to provide the platform and infrastructure for them to take this leap and become global brand names.” Already, some 250 teams each on Counter-Strike GO and Dota 2 flock to Cobx’s gaming centres in Mumbai — with a firm eye on snagging top billing at pro gaming events.
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\nThere’s plenty of reason to consider gaming as a career — members of teams such as Signify and Entity can easily out earn their peers who are in regular 9-to-5 jobs, thanks to salaries, sponsorships and prize money. Improving one’s game play also means a better chance to play at global events such as the International Dota 2 Championship in Seattle where the prize money topped $24 million. In India, Cobx Masters 2018, with a total prize money of Rs 1 crore, may be the first step towards big-ticket events in the country.
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\nNot everyone in the esports segment want to chase a small band of hardcore gamers. Gaming Monk wants to carve out a space for casual gamers. “Rather than focus on hardcore professional gamers,” says Haryani of GamingMonk, “we want to build an ecosystem to bring more casual and semi-pro players on all three platforms — PC, console and mobile gaming.”
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\nThe company has organised eight offline tournaments so far across popular games such as FIFA, Call of Duty, Dota and mobile games such as Clash Royale. Its online portal, with a subscription-based signup, has nearly 9,000 users, with lawyers, management consultants and bankers lining up to play. The goal, according to Haryani, is to push casual and infrequent gamers who play Candy Crush and Temple Run to graduate to Crash Royale and beyond and start paying for game play along the way. GamingMonk holds dozens of smaller competitions — with prize money of Rs 50,000-60,000 — to entice casual gamers to up their game.
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\nMeanwhile, game developers such as Moon Frog, 99Games, PlaySimple and Mech Mocha have all latched onto India’s smart phone explosion to build out their gaming businesses. “All the action in mobile game development has happened over the last couple of years,” says Arpita Kapoor, CEO, Mech Mocha. “We are focused on games targeted at the Indian market either by licensing them from global companies or by building original titles .
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\n” Already, the firm has worked with Halfbrick Studios in Australia, to license its Jetpack Joyride game (500 million-plus downloads and counting) and is looking at more such associations. “We are working with our global partners, including Chinese gaming companies, to bring titles to the Indian market and to publish them post detailed localisation. If that works, it will open up opportunities in Japan and South Korea for us.”
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\nAcross formats, India’s gaming revolution may just be getting started.
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\nThe Zynga Thing<\/strong>
\nA little under a decade ago, Zynga and its game Farmville, which everyone loved to hate, were unmissable for anyone going online. While Zynga opened an R&D unit in Bengaluru several years ago, the company’s fortunes wavered once the Farmville fever died down and it failed to replicate the success. While the India centre played a pivotal role in the development of Farmville and many other games, employees have used the experience of working on core product development for a global gaming company to weave entrepreneurial ambitions of their own. Senior Zynga India alumni have blossomed in other roles too, with Srivatsa Narasimhan, for example, running the India operations for US-based gaming firm Narvar. Companies such as Octro, Moonfrog Labs, PlaySimple, Red Monster, Six Red Guns and Cucumber Town have also leveraged their experience with the gaming firm.
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游戏中心,更好的被称为LXG,去年升级最新的游戏装备和增强的连接。现在,几十台,这游戏飞地是点头的兴趣增长网络游戏印度。从游戏那么简单糖果压碎和地铁冲浪玩随便队伍2和智能手机反恐精英挥拳相向的忠实玩家,游戏革命是在印度。
不仅仅是漂亮的地方像LXG吸引大批玩家。一系列的电子竞技像孟买这样的公司Cobx游戏和Bengaluru-based GamingMonk正排队吸引好奇的注意和职业玩家的喜爱。增长行业努力过去二十年的大部分时间里,陷入贫穷的连通性和昂贵的硬件,但有一个春天在公司和玩家的一步。
Nazara游戏,等老公司在资金筹集了5100万美元从IIFL特殊机会基金,正在制定一个公开上市,即使等Cobx宣布意大利冠军奖金超过所得的卢比。同时,JetSynthesys,使得数码产品和手机平台,使用游戏作为一个箭头的技术飞跃。公司赢得了几个合资协议深化它的存在,除了推出游戏,比如Sachin传奇,有几百万下载在不到一个月。
“印度游戏产业已找到它的秘密武器,”Rajan Navani说,副主席JetSynthesys。“但成分都是现在工业的快速增长。“对于像他的公司来说,这意味着手机变得更便宜和破旧有线宽带,该行业在被更快的移动宽带,信实Jio作为改变游戏规则。重心已经从昂贵的,虽则变体数组的移动手机游戏。
改变游戏规则
在过去的二十年里,游戏公司慢慢地从后端工作外包给印度开发完整的游戏从这里(Zynga),现在关注当地市场。多年来,当地市场是微不足道的;控制台是昂贵的和访问是有限的。PC游戏了,但电脑太昂贵的(即使在今天一个好的游戏平台可以花费大约的负载)和最好的齿轮-鼠标、显示器、耳片,是负担不起的或者不可用。即使进入现场,宽带连接是缓慢和参差不齐的。只有在过去的两年里,新一波的手机游戏了。
在这个过程中,手机游戏市场的其他部分,如小支付游戏(或游戏内能量和生命)已开始获得牵引力。然而,专家认为,还有很长的路要走。印度人喜欢玩免费游戏,游戏公司,移动运营商和网络巨头谷歌等仍然是如何挤出更多的越来越多的玩家。
举例来说,谷歌认为有向前发展的势头。“印度人从玩下载超过十亿个应用程序商店每个月。用户群如此之大,总有巨大的机会每一个类型的游戏做得好,”凯伦Gambhir表示业务发展,谷歌应用程序和游戏。“我们总是寻找方法使玩商店从各个角度更相关的可能——支付是至关重要的。过去一年,我们已经推出了跨Airtel运营商计费,想法和沃达丰和礼品卡在4000年推出+零售店和数字编码可以在主要的在线零售商。“谷歌正在为玩家解决其他问题,他说。首先,谷歌与游戏开发商有离线版本的标题。它还推出了一个指导方针帮助游戏公司建立他们的产品对市场和印度一样,饱受的连通性。”最新版本的Android系统,我们还宣布Android奥利奥(版)的设备可能没有高端设备的处理能力。游戏为这些设备将建智能手机拥有适度的规范也可以工作得很好,”他补充道。
随着市场发现新鲜的腿,投资者已经开始加速交易的步伐,开始流和投资并购已经开始高涨。创始人Rajesh Rao Dhruva互动,游戏工作室在班加罗尔,说这些是好预兆。“经过20年的斗争,已经有一些迹象——收购,融资和建立合资企业——指向行业发现脚和准备快速增长,”他说。坐在房间里叫的鸟笼在一个城市的办公室,以前一个铸造厂,饶承认十年前,印度的博彩市场超卖给投资者和预期未能匹配现实,他们住的。
Dhruva,例如,被卖给瑞典艺术制作公司Starbreeze 2016年12月,有了小风投钱在其20年的存在。“我们卖完了小利润,”他说,程序员和游戏设计者开始工作。“早期玩家像我们这样把码…现在别人可以茁壮成长。“Nazara游戏,关注“1000卢比的IPO,已经开始追捕这些机会。支持的公司,像maven Rakesh Jhunjhunwala WestBridge资本和股票市场,获得了Nodwin HalaPlay游戏和采取了重要的股份,它构建了一个全球博彩业来自印度。它已经在60多个国家,其游戏下载2200万次在谷歌商店玩。
”在任何垂直并购活动是一个受欢迎的迹象,因为它表现出投资者的信心在不断增长的国内市场和本地人才的能力来创建可伸缩的和可持续的商业模式,”Nitish Mittersain说,首席执行官Nazara游戏。“Nazara作为催化剂来加速游戏生态系统的发展在印度通过投资前景的创业团队,与我们最近收购的下一波多媒体和Nodwin游戏。“该公司远未完成;官员说,他们继续在寻找印度内外的并购和投资机会。“移动先行数字娱乐新兴市场的机会接触超过20亿消费者是巨大的。”
改变宏观因素帮助游戏市场的发展,但也有一个态度的转变,帮助这些公司的原因。Vageesh Bhan, 27岁,是一位玩家已经发展成为一个受欢迎的声音艺术家对很多游戏工作室。作为一个中学生,他讲述了被抓住并拖出耳朵从游戏咖啡馆董事会前几天考试。到那个时候,他和他的朋友们花费大量的时间在游戏关节。当他玩的游戏——从鸭狩猎队伍——他的未来奠定一个游戏者和画外音艺术家。
Ashwin Haryani, GamingMonk创始人之一,这种转变发生在过去的几年里。他说在几个学校在德里,管理员主动为学生添加游戏区,而不是试图使他们停止玩。“他们想组织学生在校园比赛。”
玩耍的时间数字也证实,潮流正在转向游戏行业的青睐。Newzoo调查,游戏行业市场情报的提供者,显示,网民总数的83%在印度做游戏跨平台如手机、笔记本电脑或游戏机,几乎从男性和女性平等代表权。然而,性别差距是在手机游戏领域相对狭窄而笔记本电脑和游戏机。83%男性和77%女性玩手机游戏。超过三分之一的印度人,手机游戏是他们日常生活的一部分,40%男性和35%女性每周至少五天玩手机游戏。
随着越来越多的印度人的游戏,公司拼凑各种商业模式陷阱越来越多观众的兴趣。而Cobx等一些公司和GamingMonk正在建造游戏平台和基础设施、动力机械等摩卡和99年奥运会都在关注移动游戏玩家。常驻启动Playtonia,与此同时,有两个收入来源——一个专注于组织大型的电子竞技比赛,另给玩家一个最先进的游戏体验。尽管约22000玩家使用该公司的服务到目前为止,创始人是月球的目标。“我们希望到2021年有一百万用户在我们的平台上,“说Anshumann Pandey,创始人,Playtonia。“我们认为电子竞技革命才刚刚开始。”
“印度玩家还有很长的路要去匹配全球同行的技能,“Rajdip Gupta说,联合创始人,Cobx。“我们希望为他们提供平台和基础设施采取这种飞跃,成为全球品牌的名字。“反恐精英一些250团队和队伍2群去孟买Cobx游戏中心,公司关注妨碍最高计费专业游戏事件。
有充足的理由认为游戏是一个职业——团队成员如表示,实体可以很容易地获得同行规律的朝九晚五的工作,由于工资、赞助和奖金。改善一个人的游戏也意味着一个更好的机会在等全球事件的西雅图国际队伍2冠军奖金超过2400万美元。2018年在印度,Cobx大师,总奖金1卢比,可能是大型活动的第一步。
在电子领域并不是每个人都想要追逐一群铁杆玩家。游戏和尚为休闲游戏玩家想要开拓出一个空间。”,而不是专注于核心职业玩家,“GamingMonk Haryani说,“我们想要构建一个生态系统带来更多的休闲和半专业比赛的球员在所有三个平台——个人电脑,游戏机和手机游戏。”
公司组织了八个线下比赛到目前为止在受欢迎的游戏,比如国际足联,使命召唤,队伍和移动游戏,比如皇家冲突。在线门户网站,一个基于订阅注册,拥有近9000用户,与律师、管理顾问和银行家们排队去玩。根据Haryani,目标是推动休闲和罕见的玩家玩糖果粉碎和皇家寺庙跑到研究生崩溃以后,开始为游戏付费。GamingMonk拥有数十个小比赛- Rs 50000 - 60000的奖金吸引休闲游戏玩家自己的游戏。
同时,游戏开发商如月亮青蛙,99场比赛,PlaySimple和机械摩卡都抓住印度的智能手机爆炸来构建他们的游戏业务。“所有的行动在移动游戏开发已经发生在过去的几年中,“Arpita Kapoor说,首席执行官,机械摩卡。“我们专注于游戏针对印度市场通过许可从跨国公司或建筑原来的标题。
”,该公司曾与Halfbrick工作室在澳大利亚,许可其Jetpack兜风游戏(500多下载和计数)和正在看更多这样的关联。“我们正在与我们的全球合作伙伴,包括中国的游戏公司,将标题的印度市场,发布帖子详细的本地化。如果成功的话,它将会为我们打开机会在日本和韩国。”
在格式,印度的游戏革命可能只是开始。
Zynga的事情
不到十年前,Zynga游戏开心农场,每个人都爱恨,都不可错过任何人上网。虽然Zynga在班加罗尔开设了一个研发单位几年前,公司的命运动摇一旦Farmville热死了,它未能复制成功。虽然印度中心发挥了关键作用在开心农场的发展和许多其他游戏,员工使用的经验致力于为全球游戏公司核心产品开发编织自己的创业雄心。印度高级Zynga校友也在其他角色开花了,与Srivatsa纳史木汗,例如,美国游戏公司Narvar印度操作运行。公司如Octro Moonfrog实验室,PlaySimple,红色的怪物,六个红色的枪支和黄瓜城镇与游戏公司也利用他们的经验。
League of Extraordinary Gamers, a gaming centre in Bengaluru’s tony suburb of Indira Nagar, is humming with activity on a Thursday afternoon. Bathed in a mellow green light, it has the slow buzz of gamers murmuring to each other on their headsets mid-game. A quiet group of spectators is transfixed by the action on the screens.
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The gaming centre, better known as LXG, was upgraded last year with the latest gaming gear and enhanced connectivity. Now, with dozens of stations, this gaming enclave is a nod to the growing interest in online gaming in India<\/a>. From games as simple as Candy Crush<\/a> and Subway Surfers played casually on smart phones to Dota 2 and Counter-Strike<\/a> duked out by hardcore players, a gaming revolution is on in India.
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\nIt isn’t just swish places like LXG that are attracting swarms of gamers. A slew of esports companies like Mumbai-based Cobx Gaming and Bengaluru-based GamingMonk are queuing up to attract the attention of curious and professional gamers alike. The industry struggled for growth for much of the past two decades — bogged down by poor connectivity and costly hardware — but there’s a spring in the step of companies and gamers.
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\nOlder companies such as Nazara Games, having raised $51 million in funding from IIFL Special Opportunities Fund, is finalising a public listing, even as others such as Cobx have announced esports championships with prize money topping a crore of rupees. Meanwhile, JetSynthesys, which makes digital products and platforms for mobile phones, is using gaming as an arrowhead to make a technology leap. The firm has sewn up several joint venture agreements to deepen its presence, besides launching hit games such as Sachin Saga, with a couple of million downloads in under a month.
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\n“The Indian gaming industry has taken its time finding its secret sauce,” says Rajan Navani, vice-chairman, JetSynthesys. “But the ingredients are all there now for the industry to grow rapidly.” For companies like his, this means phones have become cheaper and creaky wired broadband that the industry struggled with has given way to faster mobile broadband, with Reliance Jio acting as a game changer. The centre of gravity has moved from costly, console-based variants to an array of mobile phone-based games.
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\nGame Changer<\/strong>
\nOver the past two decades, gaming companies have slowly moved from outsourcing backend work to India to developing complete games from here (Zynga, for one) — and are now eyeing the local market. For years, the local market was negligible; consoles were expensive and access was limited. Then, PC gaming caught on, but computers too were costly (even today a good gaming rig can cost around `1 lakh) and the best gear — mouse, monitors, ear pieces — was unaffordable or simply unavailable. Even when broadband entered the scene, connections were slow and spotty. It is only in the last two years that a new wave of mobile gaming has caught on.
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\nAlong the way, other pieces of the mobile gaming market, such as small payments for games (or in-game power-ups and lives) have begun to gain traction. However, experts agree that there’s a long way to go. As Indians prefer to play free games, gaming firms, mobile operators and web giants such as Google are still figuring out how to squeeze more out of a growing band of gamers.
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\nGoogle, for one, thinks that there’s some forward momentum. “Indians download over a billion apps from the Play Store every month. With a user base so large, there is always tremendous opportunity for games of every genre to do well,” says Karan Gambhir, head of business development, Google Play Apps & Games. “We are always looking at ways to make the Play Store more relevant from every angle possible — payments is a critical one. Over the last year, we have launched carrier billing across Airtel, Idea and Vodafone and launched gift cards across 4,000+ retail locations and digital codes available at major online retailers.” Google is looking to solve other pain points for gamers too, he says. For one, Google works with game developers to have offline versions of their titles. It has also launched a guideline to help gaming companies build their products for markets like India, plagued by patchy connectivity. “With the latest version of Android, we also announced Android Oreo (Go Edition) for devices that may not have the processing capabilities of high-end devices. Games made for these devices will be built to work well even on smartphones having modest specifications,” he adds.
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\nAs the market has found fresh legs, investors have begun to hasten the pace of deal-making, Investments have begun to flow and M&A has begun to gather steam. Rajesh Rao, founder of Dhruva Interactive, a games studio in Bengaluru, says these are good omens. “After two decades of struggle, there have been a few signs — acquisitions, fund raising and establishment of joint ventures — that point to the industry finding its feet and preparing for rapid growth,” he says. Sitting in a room called The Birdcage in one of its city offices that was previously a foundry, Rao admits that a decade ago, the Indian gaming market was oversold to investors and with expectations failing to match reality, they stayed clear of it.
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\nDhruva, for example, was sold to Swedish art production company Starbreeze in December 2016, having raised little VC monies during its two-decade existence. “We sold out for a small profit,” he says, as coders and game designers get down to work. “Early players like us have put in the yards… now others can thrive.” Nazara Games, which is eyeing a `1,000 crore IPO, has already begun to hunt down these opportunities. The firm, backed by the likes of WestBridge Capital and stock market maven Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, has acquired Nodwin Gaming and taken a significant stake in HalaPlay, as it builds out a global gaming business from India. It is already in over 60 countries, with its games downloaded some 22 million times on Google’s Play Store.
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\n“M&A activity is a welcome sign in any vertical as it exhibits the confidence of investors in the growing domestic market and the capability of the local talent to create scalable and sustainable business models,” says Nitish Mittersain, CEO, Nazara Games. “Nazara has been acting as catalyst to accelerate the development of gaming ecosystem in India by investing in promising startup teams, with our recent acquisition of Next Wave Multimedia and Nodwin Gaming.” The firm is far from done; officials say they continue to be on the lookout for M&A and investment opportunities within and outside India. “The mobile-first digital entertainment opportunity in emerging markets reaching out to over 2 billion consumers is massive.”
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\nChanging macro factors are aiding the growth of the gaming market, but there is also an attitudinal shift that is helping the cause of these companies. Vageesh Bhan, 27, is a gamer who has evolved into a sought-after voice artist for many gaming studios. As a high schooler, he recounts being caught and dragged out by the ear from a gaming cafe a few days before his board exams. By that time, he and his friends were spending an inordinate amount of time at gaming joints. While he played a fair share of games — ranging from Duck Hunt to Dota — his future lay as a games caster and voiceover artist.
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\nAshwin Haryani, cofounder of GamingMonk, has seen the shift happen over the last couple of years. He says in several schools in Delhi, administrators are proactively adding gaming zones for students rather than trying to make them stop playing. “They want to organise tournaments for their students on campus.”
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\nPlay Time Numbers too confirm that the tide is turning in the gaming industry’s favour. A survey conducted by Newzoo, a provider of gaming industry market intelligence, reveals that 83% of the total online population in India plays games across platforms such as mobile, laptop or console, with an almost equal representation from men and women. However, the gender gap is relatively narrow in the mobile gaming segment compared with laptops and consoles. 83% men and 77% women play mobile games. For more than one-third Indians, mobile gaming is part of their day-to-day life — 40% men and 35% women play mobile games at least five days a week.
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\nAs more Indians are more game to play, companies are piecing together an assortment of business models to snare the growing audience’s interest. While some companies such as Cobx and GamingMonk are building gaming platforms and infrastructure, others such as Mech Mocha and 99Games are focusing on the mobile gamer. Chennai-based startup Playtonia, meanwhile, has two revenue streams — one focused on organising large esports tournaments and the other on giving gamers a cutting-edge playing experience. While about 22,000 gamers have used the firm’s services so far, the founders are aiming for the moon. “We want to have a million users on our platform by 2021,” says Anshumann Pandey, cofounder, Playtonia. “We think the esports revolution is just getting started.”
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\n“Indian gamers have a long way to go to match the skills of their global peers,” says Rajdip Gupta, cofounder, Cobx. “We want to provide the platform and infrastructure for them to take this leap and become global brand names.” Already, some 250 teams each on Counter-Strike GO and Dota 2 flock to Cobx’s gaming centres in Mumbai — with a firm eye on snagging top billing at pro gaming events.
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\nThere’s plenty of reason to consider gaming as a career — members of teams such as Signify and Entity can easily out earn their peers who are in regular 9-to-5 jobs, thanks to salaries, sponsorships and prize money. Improving one’s game play also means a better chance to play at global events such as the International Dota 2 Championship in Seattle where the prize money topped $24 million. In India, Cobx Masters 2018, with a total prize money of Rs 1 crore, may be the first step towards big-ticket events in the country.
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\nNot everyone in the esports segment want to chase a small band of hardcore gamers. Gaming Monk wants to carve out a space for casual gamers. “Rather than focus on hardcore professional gamers,” says Haryani of GamingMonk, “we want to build an ecosystem to bring more casual and semi-pro players on all three platforms — PC, console and mobile gaming.”
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\nThe company has organised eight offline tournaments so far across popular games such as FIFA, Call of Duty, Dota and mobile games such as Clash Royale. Its online portal, with a subscription-based signup, has nearly 9,000 users, with lawyers, management consultants and bankers lining up to play. The goal, according to Haryani, is to push casual and infrequent gamers who play Candy Crush and Temple Run to graduate to Crash Royale and beyond and start paying for game play along the way. GamingMonk holds dozens of smaller competitions — with prize money of Rs 50,000-60,000 — to entice casual gamers to up their game.
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\nMeanwhile, game developers such as Moon Frog, 99Games, PlaySimple and Mech Mocha have all latched onto India’s smart phone explosion to build out their gaming businesses. “All the action in mobile game development has happened over the last couple of years,” says Arpita Kapoor, CEO, Mech Mocha. “We are focused on games targeted at the Indian market either by licensing them from global companies or by building original titles .
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\n” Already, the firm has worked with Halfbrick Studios in Australia, to license its Jetpack Joyride game (500 million-plus downloads and counting) and is looking at more such associations. “We are working with our global partners, including Chinese gaming companies, to bring titles to the Indian market and to publish them post detailed localisation. If that works, it will open up opportunities in Japan and South Korea for us.”
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\nAcross formats, India’s gaming revolution may just be getting started.
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\nThe Zynga Thing<\/strong>
\nA little under a decade ago, Zynga and its game Farmville, which everyone loved to hate, were unmissable for anyone going online. While Zynga opened an R&D unit in Bengaluru several years ago, the company’s fortunes wavered once the Farmville fever died down and it failed to replicate the success. While the India centre played a pivotal role in the development of Farmville and many other games, employees have used the experience of working on core product development for a global gaming company to weave entrepreneurial ambitions of their own. Senior Zynga India alumni have blossomed in other roles too, with Srivatsa Narasimhan, for example, running the India operations for US-based gaming firm Narvar. Companies such as Octro, Moonfrog Labs, PlaySimple, Red Monster, Six Red Guns and Cucumber Town have also leveraged their experience with the gaming firm.
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