How has the Indian Gaming Industry Shaped up over the Years

According to a FICCI-KPMG report, the Indian gaming industry, which was worth USD171.66 million in 2010,is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 32.1% through 2015. The main constitutes of Indian gaming industry are mobile apps, online gaming, PC gaming and console gaming. People in India are still reluctant to pay for mobile games. Most of them prefer playing free games or buy pirated games. As a result, the Indian gaming industry is not seeing as much profit as it should see. “The problem in India is not that people don’t game. The problem is that people buy pirated games. If we are able to convert the pirate users into paying consumers, that alone will make the gaming industry worth Rs 3 billion,” said Vishal Gondal, the founder of the firm Indiagames. In other words, the monetization challenges facing the Indian gaming industry need to be addressed. In keeping with this, Reliance Entertainment Digital, parent company of Indian gaming brand zapak, is planning to offer more free games in the coming years.“Currently, we have a portfolio of 70% paid games and 30% freemium,” said Manish Agarwal, CEO of Reliance Entertainment Digital in an interview with TechAsia. “But every game from now would be 'freemium' and we will take this ratio to 100% in the coming years,” continued Manish. According to a report by Gyan Analytics, console gaming had the largest market share of 62%, while mobile gaming had 23% market share, as of 2019. The report projected that the market share of mobile gaming would rise to 45%, while console gaming’s market share would drop significantly to 36% by 2014. As for the online gaming, it has seen around 30% of growth in the gaming market. Single player games comprise the largest segment of online gaming sector in India. Like the western companies, the Indian gaming companies are also trying to introduce games on social networking portals. Ads are the major support source for online games. Some of the reasons of delayed growth of the Indian gaming industry include:

1. High taxes
2. High price
3. Lack of game developers
4. Anti- gamin culture in India
5. Poor Infrastructure

These are some of the hindrances in the development of Indian gaming industry. Localizing the content could help in the development of the gaming sector, as most of the games are now being taken from or influenced by the west. Although the Indian gaming industry is still in its infancy, it has a promising growth prospect. Many online gaming platforms have been introduced. For example, skill gaming platform Junglee Rummy has become fastest growing rummy site in India in an year. People in India, especially the youngsters are adopting online gaming in huge numbers. Indian gaming industry is sure to see new heights in the coming years.