The Changing Landscape of the Gaming Industry

The world of gaming is always evolving. According to a new report by Accenture,  the gaming sector has welcomed 500 million new competitors in the last three years and now the value of the global gaming industry exceeds €250 billion. 

In the past few years with the Covid 19 pandemic, people have had more time on their hands at home, and as a result, millions of people picked up their controllers and gaming quickly became one of the most popular activities.

Gaming became a great avenue for people to entertain themselves and maintain their social connections by playing multiplayer games.  A survey of European gamers suggested 16% felt this way, with those spending time on multiplayer genres feeling especially positive.

Another reason for the sudden rise in gamers is because of new technological developments such as virtual reality. VR is an immersive technology that has transformed the user experience.  The VR gaming space is increasing business value with the help of this new disruptive technology. The industries using AR and VR technologies are forecasted to achieve a targeted valuation of over $25 billion by 2025. 

After the introduction of virtual in the real world, AR came into existence which is a creative and immersive experience that allows users to feel happy after interacting personally with the digital environment. Augmented reality is a combination of game visuals along with audio content with respect to the user environment in real-time which helps in the establishment of an artificial environment. This AR trend started in 2016 when Niantic’s “Pokemon Go!” game came into existence which represented the watershed moment that displays augmented reality which resulted worldwide into 800 million downloads.

AR and VR have brought a revolution in the world and especially in the gaming sector. These technologies help to create a realistic image along with sound and other sensations to offer an imaginary setting which stimulates a gamer’s physical presence in the environment. In the near future, there are no signs of any reduction imposed in the relationship between AR and mobile devices. But, exponential growth has encouraged developers to improve the level of interest offered by both augmented and virtual reality.

In the past few years, India’s nascent online gaming industry witnessed an unprecedented rise, catapulting it to the top five mobile gaming markets in the world. Reasons for the growth of the gaming industry in India include the growing younger population, higher disposable income, inexpensive internet data, the introduction of new gaming genres, accelerating adoption of 5G, Cloud Gaming, Gamification and an increasing number of smartphone and tablet users. 

India’s gaming industry has registered a growth rate of 38%, making online gaming the next sunrise industry. Currently, there are more than 400 gaming companies in India, and it is home to 420 million online gamers, second only to China, according to an analysis by KPMG.

Presently, India is expected to become one of the world’s leading markets in the gaming industry. Growing steadily for the last five years, it is expected to treble in value and reach $3.9 billion by 2025, states the KPMG report. The total number of online gamers grew 8% from 360 million in 2020 to 390 million in 2021. The number of gamers is expected to cross 450 million by 2023, showed data from a report by EY and FICCI. The opportunities present bright prospects for the country’s $930 million industry. The domestic gaming industry is predicted to create 10,000–12,000 direct and indirect jobs by 2023.

Online gaming, meanwhile, has been hailed as among the top sunrise sectors in India. A 12 January report by Data.ai, erstwhile App Annie, placed India among the top markets for app downloads but ranked significantly lower in terms of user spending on apps and games. However, 75% of the top 10 revenue-generation apps in India were games, according to the report, showing the potential of the sector.

Another boost for the industry, is big industry titans entering the world of gaming and eSports. For example, Tata Play (formerly known as Tata Sky), India’s leading content distribution platform, has partnered with online casual gaming startup Gamezop, the world’s largest publisher of HTML5 games, to provide its users access to 100 games on the platform. On the Tata Play Binge app, users will be able to play popular games, such as Boulder Blast, Bowling Stars, Bottle Shoot, Tower Twist, Bubble Wipeout, Carrom Hero, Ludo With Friends, Colour Chase, and City Cricket.

The move marks an increased proliferation of online gaming, even in the casual gaming space. On 14 March, telecom operator Vodafone Idea announced a partnership with gaming firm Nazara Technologies to add gaming to its value-added services experience. Through this partnership, the telco added both free games that could be streamed from within its ‘Vi’ mobile app, or downloaded across ‘Gold’ and ‘Platinum’ tiers, for a fee. Gold Games will form the largest base of the content library. Vi users can access these games through a Gold Pass offering 30 games for just ₹50 for postpaid and ₹56 for prepaid, with a validity of 30 days.

The Platinum Games will be available on pay per download basis through a Platinum Pass priced at ₹25 for postpaid and ₹26 for prepaid. 

Vi Games on the Vi App offers an immersive gaming experience with 1,200+ android and HTML5-based mobile games across 10 popular genres like – action, adventure, arcade, casual, education, fun, puzzle, racing, sports and strategy. The Vi Games proposition will initially have casual gaming content and gradually be developed to host social gaming and even eSports in the future.

According to estimates by consultancy firm KPMG, revenues from India’s online gaming market may reach $1.8 billion by the end of 2022.

To assist in arming students with the deep understanding and unique skills to help mould this ever-changing industry, Hero Vired has collaborated with NODWIN Gaming to create a Certificate Program in Gaming and eSports.

Program highlights include:

1. A guaranteed 5-month internship and a potential job opportunity at a minimum of 6 LPA with our program partner NODWIN.
2. Access to Global Game Jam and various other gaming tournaments
3. Personalized Career Guidance

The curriculum will provide students with a deep understanding of the gaming and Esports landscape and the skills to become leaders in this rapidly expanding sports business sector.