Gaming has come a long way in India. Once looked upon as a hobby, the industry has clearly gained much more momentum in the recent years.
As the demand increases, so are the opportunities in the market. The country’s ecosystem has a sizable requirement of artists and developers right now.
We spoke to Backstage Pass Institute of Gaming and Technology founder Surya P.
“The number of game companies have multiplied in the last five years. The industry in 2015 was worth 24.5 billion rupees and now it is 87.8 billion rupees, its four times the value it was, that’s how fast the industry growth rate is.” explains he.
According to the FICCI EY report real-money gaming — fantasy and esports — and casual gaming were on the rise in the country, pushed by a 52 per cent growth in total gamers which stood at 278 million. Even international giants like Ubisoft expanded their footprints in the country with their studio in Mumbai and looped in a number of Indian talent for their development team.
While gaming in India is majorly looked at as a hobby still, the scenario is changing now. Contributing to that can be the rise of mobile-led gaming and esports. Titles like PUBG Mobile has made the hyper-casual players think a little more about gaming. Another factor is the rise of smartphone availability and cheap data. With this comes a tad more seriousness about taking up as a career in gaming in the country.
Even though the prospect looks good, the challenge still remains in convincing the parents to let their children take up game development as a career. Says Surya, “We counsel parents about the value of the industry, lucrative job prospects present in this field and we educate them on the growth of the industry and further on the fact that this industry is backed up by government support.”
For the students, however, he further says, “We encourage them (students) apart from the theoretical learning, we help our students build games based on their innovative ideas and also publish them under the guidance and supervision of mentors.”
The number of game companies has increased exponentially which gives rise to a demand for many game developers thereby, offering lucrative job prospects. There are many companies that outsource some of their work which further is providing an impetus to indie game developers who do freelancing work while working on their IPs or bigger projects.
The gaming industry is a budding one in India with a lot of eyes on it for its potential. As the numbers grow, it will only bring in more opportunities and if you are thinking of taking up a course in game development, this would be an amazing time for the same!
