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Preethi J.

Bangalore, Aug. 7 Indian gamers will start spending money within virtual worlds and games soon.

Clothing and accessories for your online avatar, food for your virtual pet, a vehicle, jewellery — online gamers are paying for virtual experiences. This is becoming huge business for gaming firms who currently subsist on revenue-sharing contracts.

Over three lakh players of Second Life, a virtual world, spend between one and a million Lindex (online currency called LindeX is sold in the virtual world, where $1 equals 250 Lindex), primarily on real estate. Kids, too, spend on virtual pets at Clubpenguin.com and neopets.com.

And Indians follow suit. Indian gamers are getting used to paying for fun, believe industry experts. “It will follow the mobile gaming trend. When mobile gaming began, the same doubts were aroused. Will people pay to game? Now, we see over 1 lakh people a day paying Rs 50 to download a game onto their mobile phones,” said Alok Kejriwal, CEO and Founder of Play2win.com.

This Mumbai-based firm is introducing a multiplayer online car racing game where players can buy tyres, petrol and so on. Online currency will be distributed and people are expected to start paying up for these online dollars in three months’ time.

“Gaming enthusiasts are clear about what they want and will spend money on hardware as well as within the game,” agreed Diptarup Chakraborti, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner.

The online gaming industry now stands at about Rs 100 crore and will experience a leap with the entry of online currency, believe experts. Collateral industries such as online banking and the broadband economy will benefit; the ISP culture will boom.

Banks have already shown interest in gaming industry by extending loans for buyers of gaming consoles. New payment gateways and channels for micro-payments are expected to open up. While in the US, Paypal is a popular channel, India could see a different model of prepaid cards, which could be sold at cybercafés and malls.

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