A Game Of Cat And Mouse

India’s gaming market has for decades been chasing small revenues. But rising smartphone adoption, changing social attitude, and better payment ecosystem could be game changers.

- Sumil Sudhakaran

Gaming is about exploring human fantasies, says Mark Skaggs, creator of Farmville, once a hugely popular game on Facebook. “It gives one the fantasy of saving the princess from the bad guy,” says the former game developer at U.S.-based gaming giant Zynga. Or in Farmville’s case, herding sheep and harvesting crops on a virtual farm. The fantasy keeps players engaged, and engaged players turn gaming into big business.

But creating a fantasy isn’t easy. And making money off it is even tougher. As India’s gaming industry is finding out. The country has seen many cricket- and celebrity-based action games such as Sultan hit app stores in the last few years, but the online gaming market was worth just $290 million (Rs 1,832 crore) in 2016, according to a joint report by Google and consultancy firm KPMG India. That’s way behind the near $100 billion revenue generated by global gaming last year.

Why is India so far behind? From the way people are hunched over their mobile phones playing games all the time and everywhere—in offices, metros, and malls—you’d think the country of 1.2 billion would be one of the world’s bigger gaming markets. But despite hypnotising the masses, mobile gaming has failed to bring in the big bucks. One reason is that unlike developed economies, or even neighbouring China, India did not go through the usual evolution from gaming arcades to PCs, then to consoles, and then mobiles. Arcades never really took off in India and the high cost of gaming consoles—around Rs 40,000 today—limited lifetime sales over three decades to just around 3.5 million units, according to KPMG India. Similarly, the high prices of gaming PCs limited the market in India.