International Gaming Industry and India
India has emerged as a key one-stop destination for game development. It has more than a finger in this lucrative pie. Game development today is a $10 billion industry in US. According to research firm AC Nielsen, the Indian gaming market is expected to be worth $ 50 million by 2005, with console and PC gaming break up of $ 35 million and $15 million respectively. All of the big Indian development companies have distribution and marketing partners abroad and 75 to 80% of their turnover comes in from the international market. Most Indian developers have the global wireless gaming market - worth a staggering $550million - in their sights.
Only India?
The game industry is under increasing pressure to reduce development time and the cost of production. Reason enough for major publishers and studios to look at outsourcing development. A typical game title today takes around 24 months to make and will have a production budget of $ 4 -10 million. India has excellent programmers and the rapid growth of the market is adding to the allure. This is where the Indian game developers with their world-class quality and game development experience step in.
Leading Indian game companies like India games, Dhruva Interactive, Paradox and Mobile2Win develop for a range of platforms such as PC, console, wireless and online. The Indian market has 4 to 6 large game development companies with 50 seats and more, while there are another 100 odd small game developers with 5 to 10 seats, which are dedicated to developing for the wireless.
Significant stepladders
Outsourcing to India can be divided into three broad parts:
1. Wireless games market that is dominated primarily by games played on mobile phones.
2. Video games that use dedicated consoles to play the game.
3. Computer games that are delivered on disks or CD- ROMs and played on a PC.
Indian companies are aggressively developing games in all these three segments. India has carved a niche for itself even in the console market dominated by giants like Sony's Play station 2, Nintendo's Game Cube and Microsoft's Xbox.
Nearly 1.5 million people in the United States played games online using their Play station 2 or Xbox console in 2003, with that number expected to rise to 5.4 million in 2007.Next overlapping step has opened up with the advent of online functionality in the computer and video games market. With online connectivity, data can be updated constantly by downloading content, making the game fresh and relevant through out the season. Console games are more action oriented and graphics heavy while PC based games tend to focus on role-playing and first person viewpoints. The console and PC based online gaming are separate non-competitive markets although Indian companies produce games for both worlds.
Online only games tend to be simple, often based on puzzles, board games and quizzes. Big names such as AOL, MSN and Yahoo are joining the likes of Shockwave and Real Networks to offer online gaming communities. Indian companies cater to online only game sites as well, with titles delivered via download or streaming technologies rather than on a disk. Another small sector is that of Advergames, where companies look at enhancing their brand image by employing games to hook the user to a particular brand. These games are not restricted to the Net and can be deployed offline, on media like kiosks.
Practicality
Usually game publishers identify properties around which they can have successful games. They then approach the owners of the desired IP and purchase the license. The outreaching link pipeline that extends from IP owner to the consumer includes the IP owner, Publisher, Content developer, Carrier and the consumer. There are also Portals and aggregators that could be part of the distribution.
A lot of developers are moving up the value chain by becoming publishers. Next they assign a developer the task of developing a game around their content. Once the game is ready, the developer is paid his development fees and the publisher then releases the game to its partners, which are carriers and portals. The carriers and portals then offer the game to the consumer via downloads portals or consoles. The carrier and the publisher then share the revenues generated from consumers. While a majority of the 100 odd small sized game development studios in the country are service oriented and offer a low cost solution to the international client, the big studios are bullish on quality and do not use low cost as their plank while pitching. And thus the practicality is done.
The sequence of growth
The Indian game developers take their games seriously and spare no cost or efforts to enhance the entertainment value that their games offer. Their credo is not trying to save money in production, but making a product that is a hit.
The development cycle for a game includes game concepts, scripting, programming, character design, and animation, level making and testing.
This sequence is divided into:
Pre Production: It absorbs concept art, game design and game dynamics.
Production: Production is final concept arts, modeling, animation and programming.
Testing: It is a big task for game developers. There is a wide range of formats, platforms, carriers and handsets that the games have to be tested for.
There are separate teams for porting and testing; some companies prefer to outsource this activity to specialized units.
Software and Proficiency
A good game can be created by the right combination of design, programming and creative effort. Indian game creators are rungs ahead of the competition when it comes to skill sets and software. Game development requires specialized skill sets that are not easily available.
Key skill sets for game development on various media available in India are:
Console: the respective software development kit, Visual C++, Dire ctx, open GL, Graphics software like Adobe Photoshop, animation software like Maya, 3D Studio Max, Light wave etc.
PC: Shockwave, Flash, Visual Basic, Java, visual C++, DirectX, Open GL, Graphics software like Adobe Photoshop, animation software like Maya, 3D Studio Max, Light wave etc.
Mobile phone: Visual C++ for native application development, J2ME, VB, WAP, ASP, JSP, graphics software like Macromedia Fireworks, Freehand, Adobe Photoshop, animation software like Maya, 3D Studio Max, Light wave etc.
Pocket PC: Flash, Embedded Visual C++, Embedded Visual Basic, Personal Java, graphics software like Macromedia Fireworks, Freehand, Adobe Photoshop, animation software like Maya, 3D Studio Max, Light wave etc.
Future
Gaming is the key element in operator's and content developer's strategies to develop new, high value revenue streams, beyond basic voice services and simple text messaging. India's game development community looks bright in the future. The growth of this sector has attracted publishers, developers, animators and content providers and is also stimulating the development of innovative business models. Take for example the case of mobile gaming. It is the rising star in India's fast growing mobile business.
Conclusion
Across Asia and especially in China and India, the growth in cellular subscriptions is blazing. China alone has 330 million mobile phone users. The number of Indian users is expected to touch 80 million by Dec 2005. There are around a million GPRS consumers and 1.4 million java enabled handsets. A lot of developers from across the world have been attracted to this market owing to the sheer numbers. India too is a large market and currently has 40 million users. In-stat/MDR expects that the Indian mobile gaming market will generate US $ 26 million in revenue in 2004, and will increase to $ 336 million in annual revenue by 2009. A huge new market is waiting to be tapped. The number of paid downloads for GSM handsets in India is around 600,000 a month, while there are another 15 million free game downloads in the CDMA space.
