All in the game

Casual gamers are taking gaming to a new high

Eighteen-year-old Mohammad Arman from Kolkata, who works in a footwear factory, would have been the most unlikely candidate for mobile gaming during the early 2000s. But Indians like him are fast catching up with the world of gizmos and apps.

Arman took to gaming to unwind whenever he got a break from his work and does not mind spending part of his wage to download apps from the WAP portal of Indiagames. “I play mobile games mostly during the evenings and prefer action games. I have spent Rs 120 to download the ones I like.”

Gaming, which was once considered the pastime for the rich and young urban male, has proved to be a game changer for a section of India’s population, in both urban and rural areas, who were not considered tech-savvy.

The rise in popularity is reflected in the Ficci-KPMG 2011 report that expects the Indian gaming industry to have a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 31 per cent till 2015 and touch the Rs 3,830 crore mark, from the current Rs 1,000 crore.

Vishal Gondal, founder and CEO of Indiagames, says the shift in the gaming profile is due to easy access to mobile phones. “We saw this shift in the user base over the last two to three years. Today close to 60 per cent of our user base comes from smaller towns.”

Like Arman, 21-year-old student from Muzaffarnagar, Shakeel Ahmed, is also hooked on to mobile gaming. He spends Rs 500-600 every month on downloading games. “Since I activated the Internet on my handset a few months back I have increased the number of downloads per month.” He has also bought a new Samsung handset that allows faster download of games.

According to Gondal, users from smaller towns spend almost Rs 35-40 per month on downloading games. “With increasing penetration of mobile usage in smaller towns, we are also changing our monetising model. We will soon launch ad-funded games. We need to think of different models and adopt to the new user base.”

The change in profile is not limited to the mobile gaming segment alone. The Direct-to-home (DTH) platform has prompted the television audience to change their preferences as well, where the housewife is no longer an avid viewer of Saas-Bahu soaps, but a gaming enthusiast.

For instance, 35-five-year old Prachi Bhatnagar from Mumbai cherishes the 45-minute window she gets to herself everyday. “I play games on the Tata Sky platform during the time when the kids are at school and my husband at work. My favourites are Zombie Rampage and Road Gear.”

Bhatnagar, who had tried gaming on her mobile phone, before moving to TV games, reasons: “You can play games while you are supervising the maids. On mobile, the screen size and controls are too small.” The home-maker does not even mind paying Rs 40 per month for five to seven new games every month. “It’s better than paying for a mobile phone game and then realising that the downloaded game doesn’t even work on your handset.”

Shalmali Desai, another home-maker from Mumbai, echoed Bhatnagar’s views. “I do play games on my mobile phone but it’s far more easier to play a game on a TV screen with a remote control.” Desai, 36, and her 10-year-old daughter regularly play games on Tata Sky’s interactive gaming platform. While her daughter always wins, Desai is not complaining. “I started gaming on TV in November last year and have scored top scores on many games,” she says.

Vikram Mehra, chief marketing officer of Tata Sky, hinges on the casual TV gamer to market his product. There are almost 600,000 users who play games on Tata Sky’s Active platform. “Active Games is meant to be a simple interactive platform where anyone can play games and not just the technically-advanced subscribers.”

Hungama Digital, which provides the games on the DTH platform, launched the service in September last year with 50 games. At least six new titles are added every week.

Atindriya Bose, country manager at Sony Computer Entertainment, too feels that the rise in casual gaming in India will multiply as 3G and cheaper DTH connections increase. “As casual gaming catches on, we see consumer households also graduating to motion gaming on consoles. Motion gaming provides an immersive augmented reality experience that is rapidly becoming a popular entertainment option for Indian families.”

While DTH players are concentrating on the urban household, mobile service providers are expanding their bases in smaller towns and cities. “The urban user is moving towards the use of smartphones. The consumption pattern here are more in line with the social networking scenario,” says Gondal.

For instance, Indigames applications on Nokia’s Ovi Store and Apple’s App Store continue to be a big hit among smartphone users. “So far our applications on Ovi store have seen two million downloads on a monthly basis. Same is the case with our Cricket game on Apple’s App store,” Gondal adds.

Mobile gaming is expected to grow at a CAGR of 45 per cent to reach Rs 1,740 crore by 2015 from Rs 280-crore, now.

Pune-based building material supplier, Rajesh Sawant (name changed) is one of those few gamers who has been splurging almost Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 per month on downloading games. “My family is very unhappy with me and the amount of time and money I spent on my handset. I prefer to play action games that range around Rs 50 per game.”

Social networking sites are also cashing in on the trend with over 50 per cent of its 500 million users playing at least one game a day. Facebook is now the world’s largest online gaming platform.

Shan Kadavil, country manager of Zynga India notes: “Virtual gaming concept has attracted a lot of interest from casual gamers or even first-timers. We are now developing games that will appeal to all ages like YoVille and FishVille.”

There are an estimated 8-10 million social media gamers in India, as per the Ficci-KPMG report. Of this, close to 1.5 million people play Zynga’s social games like Farmville and Mafia Wars.