NVIDIA draws up a game plan for India

Gaming graphics card-maker NVIDIA is looking to create a gaming community in India by tying up with gaming cafés and offering them certification programmes.

Once the market develops — cheaper data and right infrastructure — it may explore introducing its consumer devices (gaming consoles and so on). The Nasdaq-listed company’s graphic processing units are already sold here.

NVIDIA says it has successfully implemented this strategy in countries where gaming had lesser penetration.

A single professional game, market sources said, can generate revenues worth $100 million in 24 hours.

According to Vishal Dhupar, Managing Director - Asia South, NVIDIA, the idea is to build a gaming-focussed ecosystem.

However, the challenge lies in setting up infrastructure. While the internet café business never really took off in the country, NVIDIA looks to work around the problem. “We are looking at infrastructure where people can come in, socialise and game together. For that, you will require cafés and internet arenas,” he told BusinessLine .

A change in mindset and comparative reduction in data prices have given some spurt to gaming in the country.

Dhupar drew references to countries like China and Korea as examples of how the gaming industry has evolved.

“We are just waiting for affordability (in data) and infrastructure to be in place,” he added.

Compared with the global gaming industry, which is said to run into $100 billion, a CII report titled ‘Emerging Trends in India Gaming Industry’ said the segment here is expected to touch $801 million by 2022 (from $543.08 million in 2016), growing at a compound annual rate of 6.61 per cent.

“From a gaming perspective ,we are now looking to bring in the ecosystem,” Dhupar said, adding that PC gaming will continue to grow 5-10 per cent CAGR.

Apart from being in touch with Original Equipment Manufactures (OEM) making gaming products, NVIDIA is also looking at identifying opportunities and viable business models for internet cafés.

Early adopters, 50-odd gaming cafés across 20 cities, have been brought on board in the past one year. The number of cafés will be taken up to 100 by January 2018.

“These are pure gaming cafés with no browsing facilities. Some of them will have added facilities like restaurants and so on. This apart, there will be value-adds like laser tagging and so on,” Dhupar said, adding that NVIDIA acts more as an aggregator for these cafés rather than investing in them or having them as franchises.

Depending on factors such as café size, number of gaming terminals and hardware offerings, the cafés will be rated gold, silver or platinum.

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