Due to nationwide lockdown, people are staying home, and some are turning to the gaming platforms to pass the time. These platforms are attracting more than hundreds and thousands of new visitors in online traffic. Growth Opportunities in the gaming peripheral market look promising over the next six years. This is mainly due to the augmenting demand for the realistic and immersive gaming experience, the rising number of online gaming tournaments, the introduction of IoT in the gaming industry, and continuous technological advancements.
The emergence of cloud gaming is driving the market. Recent advances in advanced cloud technology have turned the idea of cloud gaming into reality. In cloud gaming, the server, where all the games are stored, does all the computation work, which includes game scene rendering, game logic processing video encoding, and video streaming. This new sector is also seen as a serious competitor for the traditional game market.
According to a Global Games Market report, there are now more than 2.5 billion gamers across the world. Combined, they will spend $152.1 billion on games in 2019, representing an increase of +9.6% year on year.
According to the World Economic Forum, India’s soaring gaming industry is valued at $930 million and is number one in the world. India has over 560 million internet users, making it the second-largest internet consumer. The gaming user base surpassed 365 million in March 2020 as per KPMG’s media and entertainment report.
NCN has done the research and sought an opinion from different brands to get an insight on the latest innovations, opportunities, etc in the gaming market in India.
Significant Rise in demand for gaming laptops during the pandemic
According to Mr. Sanjoy Bhattacharya, IT Business Head, ViewSonic India, The gaming market is witnessing phenomenal growth across the country. With the world’s largest youth population and the second-largest internet population, India is one of the leading markets in the gaming sector. The lack of real games during the lockdown has stimulated people’s interest in online gaming. The gaming sector in India is currently in its formative stages and is expected to grow more than fivefold by the end of 2021. According to multiple research institutes, the Indian gaming industry has begun to spread its influence across platforms, has developed new business models, and has emerged as the country’s leading industry.
Mr. Bhattacharya goes on to say, “Online gaming has established a strong presence in the Indian entertainment industry. With a projected user base of millions of gamers, this provides a significant opportunity to the Indian gaming ecosystem. ViewSonic has entered the market at the right time with a wide range of products to further enhance the gaming experience when gamers are demanding advanced display technologies in monitors to experience every nuance of the game. It has further led to generating more employment opportunities as well as foreign companies have taken note of the growth within the Indian gaming market and seek to invest in these new opportunities.”
Mr. Vinay Shetty, ASUS Regional Director – Components Business, India and South Asia also agrees to the fact that the pandemic has given rise to gaming laptops. He says,” there has been a considerable growth in the laptops and peripherals segment and this demand grew significantly but I can’t convincingly say people have had more spare time. It was in fact reduced travel time to work and more ‘my time’ that the people utilised in harnessing personal skills. During this time we saw a surge in PC Gamers numbers. Gaming has always been an incredibly positive recreational and distressing factor for many. “
“The COVID-19 pandemic saw a shift in media and entertainment consumption trends, with more people veering away from traditional entertainment segments like film, TV and print. The successive lockdowns have also changed habits, and the average time spent on gaming has increased tremendously as Indians have more time in hand. The one great lesson that the pandemic has taught everyone is that one cannot get bored sitting at home, as a PC Upgrade for gaming is easier than ever. Another factor that boosted the demand for laptops and peripherals is because of the surge in work-from-home and even study-from-home due to the pandemic, which automatically means that entertainment in the form of gaming would also happen on these very laptops and peripherals and hence the need for upgraded hardware to support all your needs. All this can be attributed to a combination of e-learning, gaming, and work-from-home, due to the pandemic. Therefore, all the professional gamers are queueing up for NVMe SSDs like Kingston A2000 NVMe SSD for its unmatched value and the Kingston KC2500 NVMe SSD for its highly efficient performance. Even our DRAMs for gaming saw a massive uptake, all thanks to all the gaming lovers upgrading their PCs as well as students and working professionals for e-learning and work from home, respectively, “added, Mr. Tejashwar Singh, India Sales Head, Kingston Technology.
According to HyperX spokesperson, “However, every gamer needs a headset, keyboard, and mouse to play on their PCs as well as Mics to clearly communicate while streaming. This means the higher the laptop or pc sales, the more growth is expected in the peripherals category.”
Mr. Achin Gupta, Country Head-India at ZOOOK is of the view, “It is absolutely true that the pandemic and the lockdown induced by it played a key role in driving the market. The growth has been more evident in the PC and mobile gaming segment over console gaming. The demand for accessories and gaming peripherals has certainly increased, it is important to mention here that we are still in the nascent stage of it and much development is still awaited in the segment.”
Ms. Meenu Jain, Country Manager, CoolerMaster India, Cooler Master shares her views, “Well, this is subjective in nature. No doubt the current pandemic is difficult and gaming is one of the go-to means to break the monotony. We would like to believe that there is a rise in interest towards gaming and would continue to grow this year as well.”
“The demand for gaming laptops and peripherals has significantly increased in the year 2020-21 and the market has sustained its increased demand as the knowledge of better and high-end gaming products are reaching everyone. In this pandemic, more and more people are buying a single gaming product that is acting as a gateway for how a better product is performing and significantly getting converted to a PC or Gaming enthusiast,” concluded, Mr. Himanshu Jain, CEO of Acro Engineering Company.
Opportunities in Gaming Market
According to Mr. Anku Jain, Managing Director, MediaTek India, “The pandemic enforced lockdowns have certainly boosted the gaming industry which has recorded a spurt in the number of gamers, particularly in India. With movement restricted due to lockdowns and lack of entertainment options, the time spent on gaming apps by Indians, increased by 21% during the initial national lockdown, with the total customer base crossing 300 million users. This has led to increased demand for both gaming laptops and smartphones across the country. India ranks among one of the top five mobile gaming markets in the world and is all set to lead the gaming industry aided by cutting-edge technologies that have led to better options and opportunities being available today. A recent CLSA report stated that the gaming market in India is expected to grow to $3 billion by 2023 and currently, there are around 365 million mobile gamers and their numbers are expected to grow rapidly. This is also being driven by increased smartphone penetration, better connectivity and growth of gaming as a preferred choice of entertainment for the digitally savvy new millennial. In fact, with over 70k registrations, our recently concluded MediaTek Free Fire Gaming Masters Tournament’ powered by JioGames reiterates India’s growing gaming and esports reach.
Mr. Deepak Gupta, Country Head, SEA – ZOTAC says, “The gaming market in India is on a constant rise and more and more consumer segments are starting to adapt and go through the journey from a casual to a hardcore gamer. With gaming on the rise, this has given rise to more professions within the gaming ecosystem like professional esports players, streamers, and gaming tournament companies. These added professions help gaming being no longer seen like a hobby or a time pass but a lucrative career opportunity.”
Mr. Sanjoy Bhattacharya, IT Business Head, ViewSonic India says, “Gaming is a very enticing form of entertainment in India, and with the current rate of technological innovation, this industry has a lot of potentials. Newer hardware technology advancements are providing consumers with a more interactive and cinematic experience has elevated gaming to a whole new level. The industry’s future appears promising, with more and more innovation, whether in the form of new games or technological advancement, on the horizon. We expect many to turn into smart display monitors and companies are therefore focusing on launching new products that come with cutting-edge technology and offer best-quality products.”
According to HyperX, a leading gaming peripheral brand is of the view, “The Indian gaming market is growing rapidly. In fact, the country’s soaring gaming industry is valued at $930 million, and is number one in the world, essentially driven by faster internet speed, affordable data, and increasing disposable income. The pandemic has further pushed this growth as users from both metropolitan and tier 2 cities were hooked on online gaming platforms in the absence of entertainment options during lockdown last year. There was a 21% increase in the time spent on gaming apps during the initial stage of nationwide lockdown, with the total customer base crossing 300 million users. This year, as people are still encouraged to maintain social distancing and work from home, there are high chances that the average time spent on online and console gaming would increase. However, this time, the increased internet penetration to the tier -2 cities in India will be an opportunity for us to provide the gamers with world-class PC peripherals. “
Mr. Vinay Shetty, ASUS Regional Director – Components Business, India and South Asia says,” The Indian gaming market has scaled up swiftly in the last five years – Asus has been invested in the PC gaming sphere for over 15 years now which also was pivotal to the creation of the ‘Republic of Gamers’ aka ROG banner. ROG was the pioneer to host the first large format gaming competitions and among the first few to sponsor esports teams. So, this segment is very promising and there is a healthy scope for budding gamers and for companies to invest in online tournaments and sponsor e-sports teams, Brands have understood the value and ROI in this space which is why you see many associated with sponsoring gaming tournaments and professional e-sports team associations.”
Mr. Tejashwar Singh, India Sales Head, Kingston Technology says,” The Gaming market in India is on the rise, and in the last 2 to 3 years, the growth has been accelerated tremendously. Currently, India’s gaming industry is valued at US$930 million and is ranked number one in the world (Ernst and Young Report) as well. From mobile gaming, people are moving towards PC gaming as they have more time in hand. The game developers have been pushing boundaries and bringing in many avenues for the new age gamers with the quality of games in terms of cutting-edge graphics increasing manifold. With the cost of assembling a gaming PC getting affordable and games becoming more cutting edge, we are entering a new gaming era wherein gamers today can explore endless possibilities. Hence, most gamers are vying for budget-friendly and effective solutions to improve their computers’ performance. Replacing the hard drive with a solid-state drive (SSD) or upgrading your PC’s RAM are the easiest and quickest ways to enhance the PC performance to the next level for gaming. Riding on this trend, Kingston is the most preferred brand in the Indian market and well poised in the market due to extensive SSD as well as DRAM product portfolio and aggressive pricing.”
Mr. Himanshu Jain, CEO of Acro Engineering Company, says. “The Indian Gaming market has come far in terms of growth and sustainability and is projected to grow at a rapid rate until the end of this decade. The introduction of affordable internet and the availability of powerful equipment have made India a prime spot for its growth.”
“ India is developing when it comes to gaming. The amateur gamers are also becoming more aware of the new trends and are adapting to it. The growth is phenomenal. With this, we always look forward to providing the latest and the best product to our customers,” concluded, Ms. Meenu Jain, Country Manager, CoolerMaster India, Cooler Master.
Innovations in the Gaming segment
Mr. Vinay Shetty, ASUS Regional Director – Components Business, India and South Asia says,” Gaming just like technology will keep evolving with the internet industry helping the backbone of the gaming industry – the innovation on the hardware end is evolving rapidly so to speak with high-end motherboards designed specifically to be completely gamer-centric, better heat dissipation in the GPUs helping better performance and consumer networking routers for dedicated functions and distribution of bandwidth for a seamless gaming experience. Portability will be another factor to look out for. Portable monitors and gaming gear. Curved monitors and higher refresh rate monitors and Halo effect for the gaming experience. The entire ecosystem will see an overhaul in the gaming segment.”
Mr. Tejashwar Singh, India Sales Head, Kingston Technology says, ”While gaming traffic is on the rise in the last couple of years, the downside to this situation is that gaming systems are generally data starved. Moreover, discerning gamers today are looking at immersive experiences, and hence the game developers are highly dependent on technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, AR/VR, and more. This has made the gaming experience compelling for the gamers on the one hand but has also resulted in making the games heavier. Games such as Red Dead Redemption 2, Destiny 2, and Modern Warfare taking up well over 150GB each which implies that it needs a lot of storage space. Hence, to make room for the new games, the gamers have to delete the old games, which is an agonizing decision for them. Moreover, it is remarkable that NVMe SSDs enable games to boot up two to three times faster than those installed on a traditional hard drive. The games will not only load faster but there will also be hardly any time wasted on loading screens from the game’s menu to the game itself. Gamers will also notice how much faster their games load compared to other players when playing online. Gaming is all about speed and adrenalin rush, so NVMe SSDs truly help enhance the experience and make it limitless.
Additionally, installation times are also significantly reduced. SSDs in general cannot make downloading games any faster but they do install and store them in your storage system quickly and efficiently, especially when using an NVMe SSD. Even if one is not playing, they will still benefit from NVMe SSDs, whether they are loading their operating system, transferring files, or opening other applications. This is perfect if one is planning on streaming their gaming experience and creating content. An NVMe SSD will benefit one’s games, streaming, and video production software, as well as the footage and images they will need to create. Therefore, to ramp up the gaming experience and support these enhancements, gamers are vying for an upgrade to NVMe SSDs.”
Mr. Anku Jain, Managing Director, MediaTek India, said, “ Globally, gaming is gaining mileage as an industry and several smartphone and chipset makers are developing technologically advanced devices that support high-end gaming. We at MediaTek are consistently working on bringing seamless gaming experiences through dedicated chipsets that provide optimal results to Indian gaming enthusiasts. We are also working closely with our partners and developers towards introducing newer and more feature-rich chipsets in the market, be it our flagship MediaTek Dimensity 5G SoC’s or the MediaTek Helio G series, aimed at the mainstream gaming smartphone segment. Our latest MediaTek HyperEngine 3.0 gaming technology specially addresses the gaming requirements of the 5G era with faster game load times, reliable, low-latency connections across multiple networks, high FPS, ultra-low latency, brilliant picture quality, and longer battery life, among others.”
Mr. Achin Gupta, Country Head-India at ZOOOK feels that the gaming market in India has discovered the growth trigger and is evolving at a very rapid pace. He says,’ The opportunities in the segment are immense, taking into consideration the increased number of mobile phones and increased penetration in even the smaller parts of the country. If you look at it, a number of Indian gamers have hogged the limelight in the recent past, and this manifests the evolution taking place in the domain. There is more awareness, acceptability, and demand for gaming tools and accessories. The opportunity lies in the challenges posed by the new skill and demand set.”
While HyperX, a leading gaming peripherals brand is of the view, “ The pandemic has further pushed this growth as users from both metropolitan and tier 2 cities were hooked on online gaming platforms in the absence of entertainment options during lockdown last year. There was a 21% increase in the time spent on gaming apps during the initial stage of nationwide lockdown, with the total customer base crossing 300 million users. This year, as people are still encouraged to maintain social distancing and work from home, there are high chances that the average time spent on online and console gaming would increase. However, this time, the increased internet penetration to the tier -2 cities in India will be an opportunity for us to provide the gamers with world-class PC peripherals.”
Mr. Himanshu Jain, CEO, Acro Engineering Company, says, “ The usual suspects are always there, we have the best CPU and GPU in the market right now along with that we have now some revolutionary products that are becoming household things like Gaming Glasses, which help people spend more time on the device by reducing the harmful blue light or the Gaming Chairs which allow users to have proper posture while sitting for long hours.”
Mr. Deepak Gupta, Country Head, SEA – ZOTAC says,” The latest innovations in gaming segment in chipsets are the ZOTAC GAMING GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs based on the NVIDIA Ampere architecture. Integrated with next-generation technologies, enhanced RT Cores and Tensor Cores, new streaming multiprocessors, and superfast memory, the ZOTAC GAMING GPUs give rise to amplified gaming with ultra-graphics fidelity. The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 30 Series GPUs, the 2nd generation of RTX, features new RT Cores, Tensor Cores, and streaming multiprocessors, bringing stunning visuals, amazingly fast frame rates, and AI acceleration to games and creative applications. Powered by the NVIDIA Ampere architecture, which delivers increases of up to 1.9X performance-per-watt over the previous generation, the RTX 30 Series effortlessly powers graphics experiences at all resolutions, even up to 8K at the top end. The GeForce RTX 3090, 3080, and 3070 represent the greatest GPU generational leap in the history of NVIDIA.”
ASUS possesses pride for ROG. Mr. Vinay Shetty, ASUS Regional Director – Components Business, India and South Asia says,” We take immense pride – ROG was the first sub-brand that was created by Asus in 2006 when gaming wasn’t as aggressive like it is today in the country. PC Gamers have and will always be close to our hearts and will remain the focal point in our product development. The design thinking starts with the user in mind and the gamer’s comfort, expectation, and need. At ASUS, we are inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci’s paragon of humanity and engineering to inspire innovation and persist in perfection. ASUS is passionate about technology and driven by innovation. We’re always in search of incredible ideas and experiences — and we aspire to deliver the incredible in everything we do.”
“The CPUs, GPUs, and games are continuously evolving and the new development brings in the need for better hardware to keep them cool. We have recently launched our new Thermoelectric AIO, ML360 Subzero, developed in association with Intel, which can even bring down the CPU temp to sub-ambient temperature. Thereby, it is perfect for extreme gamers, enthusiasts, and content creators,” concluded. Ms. Meenu Jain, Country Manager, CoolerMaster India, Cooler Master.
Brand’s Positioning
Mr. Sanjoy Bhattacharya, IT Business Head, ViewSonic India shares his views,” ViewSonic is constantly growing in the Indian gaming market. This is due to its strong emphasis on innovation and commitment to providing cutting-edge gaming monitors to Indian customers. ViewSonic India has been at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of PC gaming with our XG and VX series, and we are grateful to our partners and customers for their unwavering support and loyalty towards us. We are also planning to launch elite gaming monitors that will enhance our end users’ gaming experience. Our goal is to provide the latest technology in the gaming industry while also meeting the needs of our customers.”
HyperX, a leading gaming peripheral brand is of the view, “ We are a companion for all gamers, regardless of the type of game they are playing, the platform they are playing on and the amount of time they are spending on it. With HyperX, every gamer will be able to play better. We have been able to decipher the needs of the new-age gamers comprising college students and working individuals, after years of keeping a tab on our competitors. Today, HyperX is one of the most preferred choices of tech enthusiasts and top-rated gamers worldwide. Each year, we manufacture an advanced version of its products to allow entry-level gamers, enthusiasts, and advanced gamers to play to their best of their capabilities. Apart from this, HyperX is also dedicated to promoting positive gaming culture and attitude among the gaming community through various approaches. We ultimately seek to promote a high level of sportsmanship that positions gaming as a positive force.”
Ms. Meenu Jain, Country Manager, CoolerMaster India, share her views, “CoolerMaster is known for the niche its provides. The Quality and performance of its products are unmatched. We ensure that when our customer chooses us they are provided with top quality components and they get the performance they deserve.
Mr. Achin Gupta, Country Head-India at ZOOOK says, ”ZOOOK has earned its identity and reputation by bringing in products that are not run of the mill and offer something unique in each segment. In the gaming segment as well, we have followed the same mantra. For instance, we recently introduced a wide range of 10 gaming headphones in the most affordable price range. The same was followed by the launch of three innovative gaming accessories in the form of a 104 keys multimedia keyboard, gaming mouse, and a noise-canceling gaming microphone. We offer premium quality products that can be afforded by all young and vibrant Indians.”
Mr. Himanshu Jain, CEO of Acro Engineering Company, says, “As a distributor, we have the luxury to target every viable segment of the market and have a firm grip over it. As the gaming industry is very broad in terms of categories and price segments. We have world-renowned brands like RAZER, MSI, DEEPCOOL, ASUS, LIAN LI, XPG, NZXT, ANTEC, and many more which target the mid and high segment of the market and we do have brands like ANT ESPORTS which target the lower to mid-segment of the market. USP for our products has always been the proven performance and quality as well as the practicality of our products that connect with the consumer.”
Mr. Vinay Shetty, ASUS Regional Director – Components Business, India and South Asia says, “ It gives us immense pride – ROG was the first sub-brand that was created by Asus in 2006 when gaming wasn’t as aggressive like it is today in the country. PC Gamers have and will always be close to our hearts and will remain the focal point in our product development. The design thinking starts with the user in mind and the gamer’s comfort, expectation, and need. At ASUS, we are inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci’s paragon of humanity and engineering to inspire innovation and persist in perfection. ASUS is passionate about technology and driven by innovation. We’re always in search of incredible ideas and experiences — and we aspire to deliver the incredible in everything we do.”
Mr. Tejashwar Singh, India Sales Head, Kingston Technology is of the opinion, “Kingston Technology offers the best-in-class products in storage and memory solutions that are being adopted by gamers aggressively. Gamers constantly need super-fast SSDs’ and compelling RAMs, which will significantly speed up player experience and mean developers can enhance the gaming experience with better graphics. Kingston Technology has already moved into the next generation of SSD solutions with their NVMe technology SSDs’. NVMe (Non-Volatile Memory Express) is a communications interface and driver that takes advantage of the increased bandwidth PCIe offers. It is designed to improve performance and efficiency while making a broad range of enterprise and client systems interoperable. NVMe was designed for SSDs and communicates between the storage interface and the system’s CPU using high-speed PCIe sockets without the form factor’s limitations. The NVMe SSD is already making a massive difference on PC, and it is only going to become an even more vital weapon in the player’s gaming arsenal. The Kingston A2000 is the affordable NVMe storage solution with impressive read / write speeds up to 2,200 / 2,000MB/s, respectively, thus delivering 3x the SATA SSD performance. It is ideal for entry-level users and DIY system builders who appreciate responsiveness and ultra-fast loading times. There is the Kingston KC2500 for extreme gamers, the next generation M.2 NVMe PCIe SSD range for high-performance computing (HPC) systems. These SSDs deliver high-speed performance using the latest Gen 3.0 x 4 controller and 96-layer 3D TLC NAND-making it is compelling for all gaming enthusiasts. “
Role of PC Gaming in Gaming Industry
Experts like Mr. Deepak Gupta, Country Head, SEA – ZOTAC feel that PC Gaming will continue to steal the show. “Gaming is all about the immersive experience that a gamer gets. PC Gaming has taken a leap with its latest Nvidia Ampere GPUs give 8K Resolution and faster frame rates give a life like an experience to gamers thus still being the most relevant and popular choice of gamers.”
According to Mr. Deepak Gupta, Country Head, SEA – ZOTAC, ZOTAC GAMING is the pioneering movement that comes forth from the core of the ZOTAC brand for a sole mission – to create the ultimate hardware fit for the undefeated and the battle experienced, and for enthusiasts who live to the game in only the highest caliber of performance. ZOTAC GAMING is dedicated to all things PC gaming with gaming hardware such as graphics cards and gaming systems featuring a futuristic style with a dark color scheme. The short and simple motto LIVE TO GAME speaks for every gamer and for the ZOTAC GAMING brand. We play games for fun whenever we have spare time and we think gaming is more art than just gaming in which we could dig deep and immerse ourselves. While we don’t have the skillset to play professionally, we try to place ourselves in the mindset of the casual and pro-gamer and design our products to look, feel, and perform how they want so that our hardware can continue to power their everyday gaming needs.
Growth of Gaming cafes
Mr. Tejashwar Singh, India Sales Head, Kingston Technology expresses his opinion, “The growth of Gaming Cafes in India is more ecosystems driven. They have contributed to the emergence of competitive gaming in a big way, with many cities offering places where Indian players can compete in multiplayer games. They also provide stable and fast internet connections and high-powered PCs, which not many gamers could afford when playing from home. The opportunity to have access to state-of-the-art infrastructure without having to invest a significant amount in similar infrastructure at home led to the growth of these Cafes. There are also many tournaments hosted in different cities, and having access to participate in such tournaments without having to travel to these destinations was an added advantage that these Gaming Cafes offered. There is the constant issue of gaming culture prevalent in one city versus the next and the overall infrastructure that supports such Gaming Cafes. Still, things have certainly improved over the years and will continue to change as well as make it more viable for Gaming Cafes to operate.”
Mr. Singh goes on to say, “Gaming Café builds the right ambiance to ensure all the needs of a gamer are covered. Cafes are making it even more exciting and hence attracting serious gamers, which gives them repeat business. The Gaming Café’s target market would be the teens interested in gaming and cater to all types of games, including a plethora of PC games and Console games. In India, these cafes operate in urban pockets frequented by the middle class and upwardly mobile, who have the time and the income at their disposal to indulge in gaming. “
Mr. Achin Gupta, Country Head-India at ZOOOK says, “Definitely, gaming cafes will be viable and will also grow at a great speed because of many factors. For instance, it enables stiff competition as there are other gamers of similar capabilities. Furthermore, it allows a gamer to try multiple new games without buying them. Also, it will enable gamers to experience amazing new tech like VR and AR without actually owning them.
Mr. Vinay Shetty, ASUS Regional Director – Components Business, India and South Asia says, “In the current ongoing lockdown and Covid situation it is uncertain when outdoor activities will resume again. Another question that would remain is how effective it will be and ROI in the changing dynamics of the business. Gaming Cafes have now started organizing a lot of online tournaments and sponsoring prizes with new gaming titles to attract new customers and ensure business continuity.”
Mr. Himanshu Jain, CEO of Acro Engineering Company, says, “For the past five years, the growth of Gaming Cafes has been very aggressive in India as the big investment kept rolling in day by day. This is somewhat halted due to the Pandemic which made café visiting slow and non existing for some part of last year. But as we know, if there is demand there would be supply and the dependence on these gaming centers will always be there due to the ever-increasing popularity of Gaming. We expect it to lift off as soon as the Pandemic reaches the controllable state.”
“We can only find answers to this once the pandemic is over. But Gaming centers are the focal points of the industry. Every budding gamer starts off from here and then the journey begins. Social media is an excellent platform to identify and connect with core audiences. Today, Gamers keep in touch with each other using general social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, etc., and also use Gaming centric services such as Twitch, Discord, etc. Cafes can utilize these platforms to attract customers. ,” concluded, Ms. Meenu Jain, Country Manager, CoolerMaster India, Cooler Master.
Youngsters taking up gaming as a career option
According to HyperX spokesperson, “Games have been a fundamental part of human culture. However, from ancient board games to streaming games virtually, the way we play has transformed with time. Gaming is no more considered as a thing for passing time. With competitive games like Valiant, Counter Strike-Global Offensive, Fortnite, Free Fire, PUBG fuelling the gaming scene in India, the community is getting deeply invested in game streaming and gamers are making a career out of it. Our country currently has around 365 million mobile gamers who have succeeded in gathering millions of subscribers on video streaming platforms like YouTube in a short period through their gaming talent. Esports events with huge prize pools have also helped gamers to take gaming seriously and think of it as a profession. Even though the gaming and esports industry is at an infant stage when compared to the US, Europe, and China market, the current prize pool of the Indian eSports tournaments is as high as INR 1 Crore. “
Mr. Tejashwar Singh, India Sales Head, Kingston Technology explains, “With the rising household income, increase in the internet, smartphone and PC penetration in rural and urban areas, the cost of acquiring a smartphone or a PC declining drastically, the gaming industry will grow tremendously in the coming years. Gaming is certainly a lucrative and unconventional career for youngsters with a steady income. For a teenager, the virtual world is where he strives for and achieves all his/her dreams, and gaming provides him with the surreal experience of being a winner. They no longer have to be confined to the 9 to 5 barrier of a traditional workspace. There are endless avenues from becoming a game developer, game tester, sound engineer, designer, concept writer, and a lot more for someone who has a penchant for gaming. “
Mr. Vinay Shetty, ASUS Regional Director – Components Business, India and South Asia says,” Gaming is a versatile topic when pegged as a career option. When growing up, the thrill and excitement of gaming is something most of us have experienced. With professional E-sports taking center stage and some even making six-figure salaries while gaming. Five years back, this would not have been a conceivable option. But today more and more brands are being associated and Indian teams participating on global platforms have made this a more acceptable form of career in India. Gaming also does not only mean playing on a screen – but it also involves game development, designing, programming, animating, and licensing. According to a study by KPMG and Google’s report on online gaming in 2017, the Indian gamer graph is going to add 190 million gamers and become a USD one billion opportunity this year, from USD 290 million.
Mr. Achin Gupta, Country Head-India at ZOOOK says, “Gaming is fun and the way trend is progressing, everybody can envision a career in the stream. The realization among the youngsters that gaming could help them build a career out of it acts as a big factor to attract young and vibrant talent. There is a very low monetary investment as well and lest we forget, the gamers get a lot of peer attention owing to the skills and acumen.”
Mr. Himanshu Jain, CEO of Acro Engineering Company, says, “The overall gaming infrastructure has increased dramatically over the last 10 years. If you would have asked us five years back we would have said that it’s not a fruitful career option, but with the infrastructure, the opportunities are growing at the same rate. We have so many career options for the youngsters, they can be a Player, a Coach, Team Manager, Gaming Content generator, Streamer, Youtuber, Event Manager, Shout caster, Expert, and a lot more. And with the upcoming years, this is bound to increase.”
Finally:
Online gaming has gained a strong foothold within the Indian entertainment industry. With a projected user base of more than 628 million gamers, this gives a whole new boost to the gaming ecosystem within the Indian economy. The Indian gaming industry is set to add 190 million gamers by 2021 (KPMG and Google’s report ‘Online gaming in India: Reaching a new pinnacle’).
