On the second day of the India Gaming Summit 2021, leaders gathered to talk about ‘The game of monetisation’ in the gaming industry. With the Covid-19 pandemic, more users got introduced and used to gaming, thereby bringing about a boom in the sector. “Gaming’s ability to deliver bite-sized entertainment is encouraging more individuals to play. As more and more Indians get introduced to it and get used to it, the habit formation will become sticky and irreversible and will enable the growth in the industry,” Anandamoy Roychowdhary, principal, Sequoia India, said at India Gaming Summit, 2021.
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Furthermore, they also discussed the future of the subscription model in gaming and the challenges of the model, especially with respect to the mobile gaming ecosystem. “India is a price-sensitive market. Adding a subscription puts an additional barrier to get consumers. However, to get the subscription model to be successful, either users must be deeply engaged in the game, or significant value needs to be provided by the developer,” Yogesh Gaikwad, country manager, JumpStart Games, stated.
Also Read – India Gaming Summit 2021 Day 1 Highlights
Day three will see speakers shed light on ‘Creating the right standard and regulation’ with names such as Avishkar Singhvi, advocate, Supreme Court; Dibyojyoti Mainak, SVP – Legal and Policy, MPL; Khalid Wani, director- India, SE Asia, Middle East, Africa, Western Digital India; Yan Garin, country head and director, Ecole Intuit Lab, among others.
The second edition of the India Gaming Summit, organised by financialexpress.com – the business news site from the stable of Indian Express Online Media is a three-day virtual event between 11-13 August, 2021, designed to bring together stakeholders in the online gaming sector to discuss topics such as the concepts of content, monetisation, regulations, gamers, advertising, ad fraud in gaming, among others.
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“In the beginning, I think tax norms should be kept very simple so that the government can also get revenue from this growing industry,” Rahul Renavikar, Managing Director, Acuris Advisors, said at the India Gaming Summit 2021.
“If we excessively tax any industry, it will go underground. The gaming industry can lead to a lot of employment and growth in the country,” L Badri Narayanan, Executive Partner, Lakhsmi Kumaran & Sridharan Attorneys, said.
“One of the reasons why we get confused in GST when it comes to gaming is because in traditional GST, the services are provided by the operator (B2C). In gaming, the money is coming from the consumer to you,” L Badri Narayanan, Executive Partner, Lakhsmi Kumaran & Sridharan Attorneys, said
“The major reason for the rapid growth of the industry is the tech savvy younger generation, the penetration of affordable internet and affordable smartphones,” Sumit Kawariya, Finance Controller, ClearTax, said.
“The inconsistencies among state laws related to scope of betting and gambling and prohibition of even rummy games in some states has resulted in uncertainties,” Utkarsh Sanghvi, Partner - Indirect taxation, EY, said at the India Gaming Summit, 2021.
“NFTs gain value when they are displayed in a certain kind of community,” Gaurav Dahake, CEO, Bitbns, said.
“The mix of Cryptocurrency and gaming has kicked off very well,” Siddharth Menon, Co-founder and COO, WazirX, said.
“Game streamers are emerging as very powerful influencers. They are almost like celebrities in this space. It's emerging as a legitimate career,” PR Rajendran, Co-founder and CEO, NextWave Multimedia, said.
“India is a price-sensitive market. Adding a subscription puts an additional barrier to get consumers. However, to get the subscription model to be successful, either users must be deeply engaged in the game, or significant value needs to be provided by the developer,” Yogesh Gaikwad, Country Manager, JumpStart Games, said.
“Subscription models may not work in the mobile gaming ecosystem since it's a free to play space and there are no barriers to entry,” PR Rajendran, Co-founder and CEO, NextWave Multimedia, said.
“The area where the next disruption is likely to come across is the cloud gaming segment,” Nitin Goel, Country Manager, Indian Sub-Continent, Gameloft, said.
“Open testing lets you know which metrics need improvement -- such as best performing countries, whether monetisation strategy is working and what creatives worked the best, among others,” Aman Grover, Head - AppDev Sales, Google India, said.
“750 million gamers use YouTube every month. Total views of gaming content in 2018 stood at 500 billion,” Aman Grover, Head - AppDev Sales, Google India, said.
“Gaming is not for all categories to advertise in. It is very intense and has a certain dark side as well in terms of adult-ish content. There is a need to be extremely careful especially in terms of brand safety,” Prabhakar Tiwari, Chief Growth Officer, Angel One, said.
“Choosing the right mix of subset of genres in gaming for placements of ads also matters beyond merely the demographics,” Umesh Krishna K, Director- Marketing, Swiggy, said.
“Since smartphone screens are small and most gamers in India are mobile gamers, it poses a challenge for brands in terms of visibility,” Prabhakar Tiwari, Chief Growth Officer, Angel One, said.
“Gaming is extremely nascent and there are a lot of opportunities for brand integrations. The experience of ads has to become more in line with the kind of games and users,” Resha Jain, Head Content Marketing, SUGAR Cosmetics, said.
“Gaming is a social meet up arena where you meet up like minded people. It has come off as a network tool. It is here to stay and grow rapidly because the consumer experience is very immersive,” Ritesh Sud, Associate Director- Category (Marketing), Perfetti Van Melle India, said.
“Not just playing but watching the game has also become big,” Amiya Swarup, Director Marketing Advisory Services, EY, said.
“For international developers, addressing the Indian price is key. Make it accessible and there should be availability of small amounts of micro transactions. The lower the entry barrier, the more value for money can be shown to the Indian users,” Anurag Khurana, Founder and CEO, NewGen Gaming, said.
“The games that are seeing a higher conversion rate are in the category of real money gaming,” Oliver Jones, Co-founder and Director, Bombay Play, said.
“There is a huge growth in casual gaming and mobile continues to be a major driver. The Indian gamer is going to be heavily dependent on social games,” Sameer Pitalwalla, Business Director- India/SEA, Epic Games, said.
“Indian gamers have emerged in large numbers across the spectrum during the lockdown while looking for an intersection between sports and entertainment,” Manav Sethi, Global Chief Marketing Officer, Octro, said.
“Over half of surveyed mobile gamers stated that quality as well as the innovation and creativity of mobile gaming is changing for the better,” Sharan Tulsiani, Business Development Manager Games, Google Play (India, Aus & NZ), said.
“Word of mouth marketing is the strongest source of game discovery, followed by in-game ads, videos, direct search and social media,” Sharan Tulsiani, Business Development Manager Games, Google Play (India, Aus & NZ), said.
“Mobile gamers in India indicated that in addition to content, the flexibility to play it anywhere and anytime are amongst the key reasons why they are satisfied with a game,” Sharan Tulsiani, Business Development Manager Games, Google Play (India, Aus & NZ), said.
“This is a new industry and rapidly changing. We are seeing an inflection point in India due to several macro trends,” Joe Wadakethalakal, Corporate Development, IR, and Strategic Partnerships, MPL, said.
“Acquisition cost in India is pretty low as of now when it comes to gaming. For companies, the focus should be on improving technical capabilities to increase retention numbers,” Anuj Tandon, Head (India and Mena Regions), Corporate Development, Krafton Inc, said.
“Gaming’s ability to deliver bite sized entertainment is encouraging more individuals to play. As more and more Indians get introduced to it and get used to it, the habit formation will become sticky and irreversible and will enable the growth in the industry,” Anandamoy Roychowdhary, Principal, Sequoia India, said.
Indian market is still shaping in terms of gaming as well as the M&E sector. Large scale monetisation of gaming is becoming a reality in India, Anuj Tandon, Head (India and Mena Regions), Corporate Development, Krafton Inc, said.