Game developers betting big on mobile gaming

The National Association of Software and Service Companies (Nasscom) recently predicted that the share of mobile gaming in the total Indian gaming development market is expected to increase from 53 per cent in 2005 to 68 per cent by 2009.

It's obvious, one may argue, considering that the rate of increase in mobile subscriber base is higher than that of PCs. While the number of internet subscribers is expected to reach 18 million by the end of 2007, the number of mobile subscribers in the country is expected to reach 258 million by that time.

However, industry representatives believe that there are other reasons as well. From the developers' point of view, mobile games require less investment, lesser time for development and fewer skill-sets, as compared to PC and console game development.

According to Ninad Chhaya, executive vice-president (operations and production), Paradox Studios, while the development of a mobile game may take anywhere from a few weeks to around eight months, PC and console games take at least two years to develop. The Mumbai-based game developing company employs 120 people as per 2005 records.

"PC game development involves high risk as well as high gain as a gaming company spends years in developing a game, which may or may not click. This apart, the time taken to recover the investment is also long," he says, adding that on the other hand, in the case of mobile games there is immediate recovery as the user pays as he downloads.

Regarding skill-sets, Chhaya says, "PC games require high-end programming as compared to basic Java and C/C++ skills required for mobile game development."

The investment too is significantly less. Rajesh Rao, chief executive officer of Dhruva Interactive, that develops and publishes games for PCs, consoles and mobile devices, says that the investment for a mobile game development in India may take between $50,000 and $1,50,000.

"But the development of a PC or console game in India involves a minimum investment of half-a-million dollars," he adds. Dhruva employs 65 people at present.

"Piracy issue is also negligible when it comes to mobile games. On the other hand, more than 90 per cent of the CD-ROMs available in the market are pirated," Rao adds.

This is because the cost for downloading a game on a mobile phone ranges from Rs 30 to Rs 99 for a GSM handset while a CD-ROM comes at a minimum cost of Rs 150, with some even costing Rs 2,500. This apart, cyber cafes charge anywhere between Rs 20 and Rs 40 for one-hour sessions of gaming.

No poaching deal

In order to reduce the damage caused by the dearth of talent in the gaming industry, the Indian Games Industry and Trade Association (iGITA) members have decided not to poach each other's employee base.

According to Rajesh Rao, CEO of Dhruva Interactive, and founder-member of the association, a 'No Poaching' agreement between the members will prevent the member-companies from inflating salaries and thereby poaching each other's employees.

This apart, the association will be approaching the central government for including skill-sets that are required for the gaming industry as electives in engineering courses.