Sixty five percent of American households play computer or video games. 190 million household will use a next generation video game console in 2012. Global video games sale is to reach a whopping $ 68.3 billion in 2012. The gaming industry is new age “it” industry. Compare these facts with the Indian market and you will have a gloomy, dismal picture. According to IAMAI’s research, the size of online gaming market in India stands at a minuscule number of Rs. 21 crore [11% for advertising, 31% subscriptions and 58% for cafes Wengtoto]!
Currently, the issues concerning the online gaming market in India are:
Prevalence of anti-gaming culture: Remember IITs banned Internet at late hours in the student hostels?
Low user adoption
Poor infrastructure/PC penetration
In this sorry state of affairs what is the future for the gaming companies in India? The companies which produce online game content should try to come out with out of the box thinking and solutions. Till the time gaming companies imitate the American concepts, formats and features, they are bound to lose because of the difference in the cultural mix. A company which is producing content for the online portals should understand the psyche of Indian user and then work for solution.
Think solution-
11 click phenomena – according to a study on online behavior when it takes a user more than 11 clicks to download and play a game online, it is very unlikely that the user will return to that site. Site design, navigation, path to download etc should be very clearly steered as it plays key role in bringing the people to action.
Localization of content: Why should one visit an Indian site to play ‘Tomb Raider’? I would rather play ‘chacha chaudhary/saabu’ and if somebody wants to “Superman”, “Batman’ games then DC comics, Marvel studios, Disney Pixar are the obvious choice. One comes to Indian sites to have a feel of Indian Superhero, something like Shaktiman.