As India turns the corner towards slowly but surely becoming a developed nation, its middle class has also begun to catch on to a popular “vice” among the more developed countries- Video games.

Producer side dynamics:

A hit Bollywood thriller about a man with short-term amnesia has inspired India’s first 3D videogame, in a country where the animation and gaming industry has been slow to grow but could touch $1.3 billion this year. The PC game, based on the Hindi-language film “Ghajini,” was launched in India in January 2009 and is being marketed worldwide as well by Indian film distributor Eros International PLC.[1]

FXLabs, the pioneer behind this foray into indigenous game development, is the leading end-to-end game company in India. Founded in September 2004, FXLabs began its operations building PC based games both for the Indian market as well as the global market. In December 2007, FXLabs acquired an online game portal to expand its operations into the online casual game space. The vision of the company is to be the top developer and publisher of games for all platforms including PC, console, online casual, MMOG, and handheld gaming devices.

Publishers and developers today are faced with escalating costs, personnel shortages, and competitive pressure to push technology to the limit. To address these challenges, progressive companies are embracing low-cost high-quality outsourcing partners capable of augmenting their own internal production capacity. This approach affords the benefits of speed to market with tremendous costs savings and without compromising quality.

The outsourcing division at FXLabs was created to address these needs and support our client’s goals of achieving market leadership. The dedicated outsourcing team handles each of our client’s projects with care and attention to detail while maintaining security and data integrity throughout the process. Our multi-shore model provides for reliable communication and readily available project status and updates.

India always had the potential to become an attractive destination for outsourcing of gaming development activities. What started off from Back-office process outsourcing (BPO), moved on to LPO and then Knowledge process Outsourcing (KPO) seems to finally be hurtling towards GDO or Game development Outsourcing. However, the hurdles for Indians in GDO are much steeper than either the BPO or KPO industries. For one India’s linguistic advantage no longer holds as much value in the GDO sector. India will have to compete with South Korea and Taiwan whose experience and consequently talent pool is far greater than that of India with regard to game development. India needs to establish special training institutes to develop quality professionals. In addition to outsourcing, Indian companies can team up with their foreign counterparts to co-produce games.

One of the things driving the Game development industry in India is the potential market here. According to a new report by San Francisco-based analyst and consulting firm Pearl Research, it has been estimated that the internet game market in India will exceed $200 million in 2010.[2] With both local and international publishers has started investing in the Indian internet games market, today online game development represents one of the few feasible publishing models in a country where software piracy rates stay beyond 85%.

Institutions:

In 2006, Indian gaming companies and Indian subsidiaries of foreign gaming companies established the Indian Games Industry and Trade Association (iGITA). iGITA would help Indian gaming companies to secure a strong foothold in the global gaming development market. Indian gaming companies are in the process of developing products that are targeted at both domestic and international markets. Despite the growth and opportunities for development, the Indian gaming industry has to deal with challenges such as scarcity of skilled professionals and high prevalence of piracy.

Because the gaming industry is well-established in other parts of the in the world, entrepreneurs in India would not have to expend the same amount of energy to re-establish legitimacy in their country. Also, both technical aspects and well as the outsourcing are accepted, popular and seen as legitimate professions/ business models in India; gaining legitimacy is never going to be an issue for this Industry here. The only visible barrier for now seems to be a lack of trained professionals in this particular domain.

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[1] (2009, January 22). Bollywood hit inspires India videogame. Retrieved August 14, 2009, from http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE50L1VI20090122

[2] Raj, D. (2007, December 30). Online Game Development India. Retrieved August 13, 2009, from http://ezinearticles.com/?id=903276

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