The Hindu Business Line : Gaming market set for `big growth'

GAMING is emerging as big business in India coinciding with the growth of mobile and PC use and is expected to get a further thrust with broadband rolling out shortly.

"India's gaming market is growing at a 100 per cent rate and in the case of mobile, the growth is around 200 per cent," said Mr Vishal Gondal, Founder & Director, IndiaGames Ltd, one of the players in the gaming business.

The mobile gaming market in the country currently pegged at Rs 12 crore could top Rs 80 crore in 2005. He believes that IndiaGames, which has a 60 per cent-70 per cent of the mobile gaming segment, is well poised to see this growth through.

IndiaGames has been moving into games based on Hollywood films and has been able to grow the market further.

Recently, it launched a mobile game based on Spiderman and Van Helsing through mobile service provider, AirTel.

According to Mr Gondal, last month 29 per cent of the downloads on AirTel were for Spiderman and 20 per cent for Van Helsing; the rest from existing 400 products. This clearly indicates the consumer shift to Hollywood-based gaming properties.

IndiaGames is due to launch a game under the brand name `Bruce Lee', the martial action icon.

It has entered into an agreement with Universal Studios Consumer Products Group for the licence to launch wireless content of Bruce Lee mobile games, wallpapers, screensavers, ring tones, voice ringers and alerts.

Bruce Lee will be released worldwide in a couple of months, Mr Gondal said. According to him, properties such as Bruce Lee help in brand differentiation.

IndiaGames has been acquiring gaming licences. It had acquired the licence for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, a television series about a vampire slayer and her friends protecting their town from evil. More recently, it acquired the licence for `The Day After Tomorrow'.

IndiaGames has been focusing on developing products for console, PC as well as mobile.

Last year, 77 per cent of its revenues came from products. IndiaGames has also a strategic arrangement with handset manufacturers such as Nokia and Qualcomm.

Bolstered by the growing demand for gaming products (as is evident in the sale of Spiderman gaming product), IndiaGames proposes to hire more personnel. "We need people with a combination of software, animation and game designing skills," Mr Gondal said.

Although IndiaGames is on a growth trajectory, Mr Gondal is not looking at an equity offering. However, he does not rule out such a possibility. "We are among the top five gaming technology companies. We can unlock value in India some day in future," he said, pointing to the fact that JamDat, one of the leading gaming companies, went in for a Nasdaq listing recently.

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