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Mauj and Hungama are top-of-mind recall when one mentions mobile gaming in India. But a global player is swiftly preparing its ground, says Savreen Gadhoke
King Kong, Real Football, Midnight Pool, Ferrari World, New York Nights… the names mean a lot to all mobile gaming aficionados, who swear by the game’s time-pass value during boring college lectures, dull office meetings and sometimes even at the cost of their beauty sleep (when the ego trip is all about beating your own score!).
Fact is, mobile gaming has emerged as the latest blockbuster on the entertainment bandwagon, scoring high on the back of the growing wireless subscriber base in the country. Gartner predicts that the mobile gaming industry in India is projected to touch the $450 million mark by 2012 and while revenues from the same stood at $80 million in 2007, the same exceeded expectations over the next few years.
So from being a default application in most handsets, mobile gaming has evolved as an important source of revenues for telecom service providers, handsets manufacturers & publishers too. Encashing on this frenzy are various Indian companies like Hungama Mobile, Mauj Telecom, et al. But global players are not far behind. The $140 million European mobile game publisher Gameloft, which set its foot on Indian soil in 2005, is confident that they would be able to make their dent in the market... and soon!
Headquartered in Paris, Gameloft is already the numero uno mobile gaming company in Europe, number two in the US market and growing at an impressive rate of 40% (in 2007). Gameloft published six of the 18 games in Nokia N-Gage. Over the last three years, Gameloft has concentrated on acquiring channel partners and today has brands like Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance in its kitty. Now, top honchos at this gaming company are gung-ho about the iPhone launch in India, as they are sure it will kickstart an altogether new phase of growth for them. In an interaction with 4Ps B&M, Ravi Kumar, Country Manager (India), Gameloft, reveals the importance of Indian market in its growth strategy.
How important is the Indian market for Gameloft?
India will be a very significant market for Gameloft in the years to come because the volume that we are expecting out of the Indian market is huge. Currently there are 250 million subscribers and the number is expected to go up to 500 million by 2011. So we can expect at least 250 million mobile games downloads. We are probably the only company in game publishing industry, which publishes games for as many as 800 handsets, which means we try to adapt our games to both high-end as well as entry-level models.
Is your gaming content developed in India only?
For the content of the game, we’ve different studios across the world. We have 4,000 people, 90% of which are into content development. We’ve studios in US, France, Japan, China, India, etc. We back our technical capability with technological resources to support. One studio alone does not take the responsibility of creating a game because development of a game is divided into different stages. Depending upon the stage and work allocations, the global production team decides.
But you’ve India-centric games?
We primarily have games for the global audiences. But if you consider cricket game as an Indian game, then we do have India centric games. ‘Prince of Persia’ was also very popular in the Indian market but that was not specifically an Indian game. But we do have a game called ‘Vijay Singh Golf 3D’. Even our games ‘Real Football 2007’ & 2008 did extremely well in India.
You already have a formidable reputation globally. Comment.
Gameloft has a lot of credibility in the International market. We are clearly number one and PG.biz Quality Index survey done by Pocket Gamer (mobile game review website) has ranked Gameloft as leader in terms of quality. We are number one in sales too. Both qualitatively & quantitatively we are clearly ahead. We have a lot of ideas for iPod & iPhone and we expect a transition in the mobile gaming business with the launch of iPhone in India, because it has a lot of applications like the touchscreen, which fit very well with the new taste in gaming. We have adapted our games to the iPhone too and are ready to develop more games.
But when you talk of Mobile Gaming in India, Gameloft is not top-of-mind recall?
Well, we first wanted to have our sales partnerships in place and only then go about tom-tomming our brand in India. Now that we have those partnerships in place and are confident about our line-up, we will do the brand building exercise. Since our units are in place, you will see the Gameloft brand picking up in India.
What are the critical challenges that Gameloft faces in India?
If India wants to grow its mobile game industry, wireless carriers will have to take a leaf from Japanese business practices. Higher revenue sharing with game developers, according priority to developers instead of aggregators, allowing developers to host their own page on carrier’s portal are some of the key challenges. When developers host their own page, they have better control on what to sell and how to sell, eventually translating into more sales. Unfortunately in India, aggregators are calling the shots & pulling down creative quotient of the industry.
How does Gameloft plan to establish itself in the Indian market?
We want to grow into a trusted brand. There is lot of uncertainty when a customer downloads a mobile game. We try to ensure that all our games match the quality expectation of consumers. We want to build a relation with Indian consumers where they feel that purchasing from Gameloft is sure-shot gateway to international quality experience in mobile gaming. We would like to grow our distribution channels, and work with carriers like Reliance & BSNL too.
How do you visualise the mobile gaming industry in the coming two years in India?
The government and TRAI want that operators work more on the VAS side because telecom players get a good margin from these services. In APAC region, a 45% yoy growth is expected in video games across formats including mobile games. Number of telecom players is increasing by the day and keeping in mind the demographic shift that is happening; mobile gaming has a good bright future in India.
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Source : IIPM Editorial, 2008
An Initiative of IIPM, Malay Chaudhuri and Arindam chaudhuri (Renowned Management Guru and Economist).
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