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The next big opportunities in gaming

There are increasing investments of tech companies into gaming-specific PCs, mobiles and equipment. They are coming up with experience.

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Ashok Pandey
New Update
16 18 The next big opportunites in gaming

There are increasing investments of tech companies into gaming-specific PCs, mobiles and equipment. They are coming up with experience centres for gamers to experience these new launches. With metaverse coming into the picture the experience will get more and more real. This is just the beginning.

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Although the Indian eSports market stands way behind the US and China, regardless of the presence of virtual games for over a decade, we hope that it will hit the 11-billion mark by 2025. After all, a majority of Indian users discovered their appeal only during the pandemic. They are now ready to spend on eSports as much as they would on movie tickets or live soccer/cricket matches. As a result, players are increasingly taking eSports more seriously and professionally.

The increasing viewership of eSports is also grabbing major consumer brands' attention and investment interest. Brands like Intel, HP, and Philips have already joined the bandwagon by sponsoring tournaments and professional teams.

The consumer mindset has shifted from casual games to competitive video gaming, as well as multiplayer gaming. The changing preference and extensive popularity of games like FreeFire, Dota-2, or Valorant, have found space in everyone’s smartphones and gaming consoles. Today gaming and esports are much more than just forms of entertainment and hobby. It is a highly competitive industry and has opened various career options for all. Tournament awards and increasing cash prizes, increasing global and national esports competitions, and brand sponsorships, there is a lot to explore.

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Raj Kumar Rishi Vice President Managing Director CSB Dell Technologies India

Raj Kumar Rishi, Vice-President & Managing Director, Consumer and Small Business, Dell Technologies, India

I believe the trend of PC gaming will continue, given how the community has expanded and the increasing awareness of gaming as a viable career option. Most importantly, India is a growth market for gaming. If you look at the number of investments and the speed with which the ecosystem has been growing, we have significant confidence in our strategy, our gaming products, our relationships, as well as our way of doing business.

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Gaming, like music and movies, has become an integral part of our lifestyle. As technology evolves and games become better, it’s natural to expect new avenues to open up within the realm of gaming. Gaming in India will continue to grow on mobile because of their ubiquity and affordability. Smartphones are an increasing necessity and that they offer fun gaming and other entertainment options makes them a must have. It is projected that India will touch more than 70% smartphone penetration by 2023. Hence, there is a lot of room for growth in mobile gaming. Mass scale adoption of VR in India is unlikely to come in the short term, even though the true blue aficionados are swearing by it.

Cloud Gaming

The next-generation gaming consoles are built keeping in consideration the rising popularity of cloud-based gaming. The cloud has made its presence felt in the gaming industry, but the integration of cloud computing with game design might not necessarily improve the look or play of games. The main reason it hasn't yet fully taken off is that the latency and the technology required to support the service is still in development. For example, while playing on a PC or console, the data processing, graphics and video rendering is completely dependent on one’s internet service provider. This in turn affects the image quality or download speed, as well as the effect data caps have when using a cloud gaming service.

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Sameer Bhatia Seagate

Sameer Bhatia Seagate

Sameer Bhatia, Director of Asia Pacific Consumer Business Group, and Country Manager for India & SAARC, Seagate Technology

Games can be downloaded directly to a console, which requires higher capacities, especially with today’s standard modern AAA game being at least 25Gb in size and higher, uninterrupted frame rates. That requires storage capacity expansion with high-capacity gaming HDDs, and NVMe SSDs like FireCuda 530 that is pushing the limits of a PCIe 4.0 x4 interface with a rated sequential read speed at 7300 MB/s for faster transfer rates.  Video games are one of the fun aspects of our business, regardless of whether the gamers save their profiles or game data on cloud or on internal/external drives. 

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A viable career option

Until recently, esports was primarily considered a PC trend. But the explosive popularity of gaming across platforms has triggered a surge in esports tournaments and live stream events. Today, gamers are actively participating and competing in esports events and tournaments. Also, the fact that there is a lot of industry participation and government regulations to make it more mainstream. The government bodies are also recognizing esports as a professional sport, further expanding opportunities for gamers. Esports is no longer like a hobby or an underground kind of event, that has progressed to become a medal event in the Asian games.

The inclusion of esports as a medal event in the 19th Asian games, is a positive thing for the industry, as it will encourage the next generation to consider esports as a viable career option.Even though the industry is relatively new, there is a huge potential in terms of popularity, reach, and even in terms of earning potential. The prize money for esports is bigger than some of the mainstream sports. There is also a huge potential for women gamers to become a key part of esports. It can be gender neutral and that opens up a huge growth potential. Indian eSports market, which was confined to metros, is now expanding to tier 2 and 3 cities thanks to the broadband penetration, dominated by 4G. With 5G, we hope eSports will be a major component of the Indian gaming industry.

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Piyush Kumar Rooter

Piyush Kumar, Founder & CEO, Rooter 

Witnessing the scope of growth in the Indian eSports, blockchain gaming creators are being roped in to proliferate Web3 gaming in the industry. Meanwhile, new-age securities such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) are also being integrated in this space. Gaming platforms can build lucrative revenue streams and drive user retention by converting virtual avatars, in-game rewards, and streaks into NFTs.

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As the Indian eSports sector continues to grow rapidly, there will be an increase in the frequency of virtual gaming events. This will create more jobs for game streamers, techies, designers, and game content creators, besides other job roles like data handlers, event organisers, and game commentators.

Metaverse

Since Metaverse leverages technologies AR and VR to create a more organic experience, players feel a lifelike experience exactly how they would feel in the real world. Metaverse gaming platforms are interoperable, allowing players to move their gaming items from one space to another without any major change. In the coming years, with a better and more efficient data transformation structure, one must start replacing gaming with Meta Experiencing and not only games in it. Further to this, social, trading, business, and entertainment might start taking place in this new universe. Metaverse has the capability to help people experience gaming & entertainment like never before when clubbed with a portable & powerful device. That’s where MSI comes in, offering powerful machines with the latest technology to ensure a seamless user experience.

So, experiencing the complete beauty on your laptop with a VR headset or enjoying it on the go with your handset is the future of gaming.

By Ashok Pandey

ashokpa@cybermedia.co.in

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