Why gaming is India's "new entertainment frontier"
2018 was a pivotal year for the video games industry in India. Smartphones had already been moving towards the ubiquity they enjoy in the West but the launch of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds marked a significant shift for the market.
Real-money gaming titles have dominated the Indian gaming market for well over a decade, and continue to do so, but Krafton's multiplayer shooter demonstrated an appetite for different experiences that went beyond the gambling and casual games that typically rule the roost on mobile.
"That game really changed perceptions and even the market entirely because before that, gaming had been very polarising," explains independent consultant Sameer Desai, whose previous roles include editor of MCV India and country head for THQ Nordic. "For one thing, it was seen as for kids, but on the other hand it was seen as too violent for kids to play. There were games that were popular before – Angry Birds, Temple Run, and so on – but PUBG came in and suddenly blew up on mobile.
"That happened around the same time that smartphones and data became cheaper, so that really helped. All of this created the perfect storm. You also had influencers playing PUBG, creating videos in Indian languages, which hadn't really happened before. All that came together, and PUBG became this poster child for what gaming can be in India."
Pre-2018, gaming was "like the Wild West" in India, Desai continues. PC and consoles were available but the cost of entry for consumers was high, which led most to piracy ("You could just browse PS2 games in a store like vinyl records," he says). The arrival of Steam helped somewhat, but the market never grew to the size seen in other markets.
"It was also a very urban phenomenon because only people who had the disposable income could get into gaming," Desai adds. "It was a luxury, but now gaming is becoming a hobby and people are even looking to make careers out of it."
Sharmilee Daru – founder of 4WD Gaming, a leading PR agency in India –
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