Inevitable Growth foreseen for the Indian Gaming Industry

There are numerous reports doing rounds predicting tremendous growth of the Indian Gaming Industry. The forecasts are out and the claim is that the industry would grow at a Compounded Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 32% by the year 2014 recording an amount of Rs. 3100 crore. I might as well bet all my money on this forecast, since most current facts and details entice me to do so.

In India, aspects such as young population, increasing disposable incomes, larger wireless user base and rise in the number of game developers and publishers have over a period of time contributed to the tremendous growth of the Indian Gaming Industry. The magnitude of the Indian gaming industry was evaluated at around Rs. 790 crore in the year 2009 as against Rs. 650 crore in the year 2008, representing a development of 22% from 2008 to 2009.

Owing to the above mentioned factors and also with the anticipation of the industry to deliver innovative and entertaining games the growth level is speculated to exceed 30% and make money that is equivalent to Rs. 3.9 billion by 2014.

Key Drivers of the gaming industry’s progress

Console Gaming: Firms that follow the console gaming business models are gradually shifting from a product based to a more services based business model facilitating gamers to not just play but also watch movies, upload photos and so on. With this, the CAGR of console gaming in the country is expected to increase from Rs. 5.8 billion in 2009 to Rs. 11.6 billion by 2014.

Mobile phone gaming: With the likeliness of 3G services to hit the Indian telecom industry soon, mobile phone gamers can enjoy efficient high speed data networks, thus relishing uninterrupted online gaming activities.

Local needs under check: Many Indian gaming companies have undergone mergers with western gaming firms and hence have seen advancement technologically. Gaming companies still come up with content that is more local such as Hanuman and Kabaddi that are quite popular among Indians.

Enhanced Online Gaming: The progress of the online gaming industry through social networking sites has surely augmented the Indian gaming industry. Also, gaming shops like Zynga’s existence online and their reach to the social networking audiences has definitely contributed to the worldwide growth of the gaming industry. The growth evidently reflects in the statistics as the year 2009 saw over 85 million PC literate online gamers as against 65 million PC users in 2008 indicating steady growth of the online gaming industry.

Even after considering the above points, there still is a part of me that is pessimistic about the speculation of the Indian gaming industry to attain 32% growth by 2014. Limited knowledge and awareness of the gaming products, lack of gaming infrastructure and technology and certain conflicts between gaming publishers and telecom service providers with regard to the revenue sharing agreement are a few reasons that could bog down the CAGR of the Indian gaming industry. However, growth for the industry is inevitable.