Indian Gaming Industry Reaching to a New Pinnacle

Globally, the gaming industry has grown rapidly, due to the coronavirus outbreak, and India was not an exception. Millions of Indians turned to mobile gaming platforms. According to FICCI-EY, the gaming sector had a value of INR 65 billion in 2019 and is anticipated to reach INR 187 billion before 2022.

Mobile gaming, in particular, has seen a massive increase in India, with 7.3 billion game installs in the first three quarters of 2020. According to data from Sensor Tower, this accounted for 17% of the global total.

We spoke to Rahul Bhattacharya, Co-founder & MD, Microgravity, to understand the gaming trends and latest developments etc. in the Indian gaming industry.

The gaming trends in India

India is a mobile-first economy. The pandemic has accelerated the consumption of gaming on mobile. With 7 billion installs, India is one of the largest consumers of mobile gaming.

First person shooting and multiplayer titles by several game publishers have garnered a huge fan following. Many consumers who for reasons did not try multiplayer titles on the mobile explored the same.

It’s not just playing but watching as well. Millions of people are now resorting to watching in-game streaming across channels like YouTube, Facebook, and Twitch. At 5% of the entertainment industry, gaming as a mode of entertainment is likely to see enormous growth in the next few years.

Rahul Bhattacharya, Co-founder & MD, Microgravity

Location-based gaming arenas are likely to see a boost as there is this pent-up demand across the society for newer entertainment options. For e.g. We are already seeing revenge shopping as a phenomenon in many countries. A 300 million + casual gamer population actually is close to a population of a large country like the USA. Not an easy number to ignore while this number is growing. India had 500 million smartphone users as of 2019 and the number is expected to touch 750 million as of 2025.

The latest developments

Virtual Reality is the next big thing and it's considered to be at the forefront of gaming tech. VR gaming is known for its immersive experiences that can transport the enthusiast into this dream world of gaming in no time.

Earlier versions of VR gaming were tethered with wires and PCs but now it has gone wireless with backpacks. In the future, we are likely to experience faster, lighter, and more affordable VR technology where the computing power will reside in the headset. This has already happened with a few OEMs.

There are technologies now which allow you to roam freely and experience titles with friends and family and is therefore multiplayer. You can see the obstructions, friends, and fellow participants

clearly in the calibrated game space while you explore the depth of the new world. Zero Latency is one of the leading game publishers in this space.

Also, advances in smartphone technology (such as better cameras and processors) will make experiences, especially Augmented Reality, slicker on our phones. With this, world-class VR/AR content will also get repurposed in the mobile format. We would like to see India specific content coming through and be the pioneers in developing this segment.

Like cloud gaming, cloud VR could also largely reduce consumers’ investment in hardware, further lowering the entry barrier to VR gaming.

Also, with the advent of 5G, much faster data speeds and lower latency by manifolds will move the content to the edge and that can be accessed through the cloud. Therefore, the whole system will actually respond to higher levels of skill on the gamers side.

The key challenges

The continuous engagement of the casual gamer has been a challenge as the enthusiast demands greater depth and more maps within the content. The cost of high-quality and compliant gaming hardware has been on the higher side and hence not easily accessible to all. Interoperability of popular gaming content and access through multiple devices seamlessly has emerged as one of the most wanted pre-requisites for multiplayer titles. Several principals have kept their content closed and tied to certain platforms which again is a limiting factor for the growth of the industry.

The combination of the high cost of the hardware, software development, and rapid changes in the content ecosystem and protocols are major challenges as it demands a lot of capital at both ends of the demand-supply equation. Mobile gaming is expected to improve player experience with the introduction of 5G gaming with exponentially higher speeds and lowered latency. Sometimes the quality of the content delivered by game publishers can wow the gaming proponent but unfortunately cannot be accessed from the cloud or on the mobile. We believe with the introduction of 5G will give a massive boost to the gaming world.

The future of mobile gaming

India’s mobile gaming industry has taken a big leap in recent years. As per industry reports, around 85-90% of the 365 million casual gamers are on mobile and remaining on PCs and consoles. The manufacturing of low-cost mobile phones and inexpensive data packages have not only increased the number of Indians gamers but also increased the consumption appetite of the enthusiast, creating the perfect conditions for a successful and thriving mobile-based e-sports ecosystem.

AR and VR games come with higher resolution, deeper colours, 3D plays, and maps. A lot of titles on the PC and Console are stunning. The level and quality of the graphics and versatility of its gameplay features are just something else. So that level of gaming experiences will need a powerful PC to support interactive gameplays for some time to come.

With the advent of improved computing power on the mobile and the introduction of 5G, the reliance on the PC will go down as more and more content can be accessed through the mobile.

The cloud gaming

Cloud computing has revolutionized the world of gaming. Cloud-based gaming platforms allow you to run high-quality content and games on your mobile, laptop, tablets without owning high configuration and expensive hardware. Moving the content to the edge allows for better responses while accessing the games from the servers. With cloud gaming, a game lives entirely in data centers eliminating the need for downloads and provides tangible and real benefits for both player and provider. It will provide huge benefits to the gaming industry including the service providers like us, so we could bring down the cost of delivering such content. Also, with the introduction of 5G, this will become a reality very soon.