Gaming in India has witnessed major changes in recent times and global brands have already acknowledged them. What was largely a prerogative of students and residents of big cities, today gaming has shifted beyond these confines across India where gamers are emerging from the farthest corners.
While a dedicated gaming setup is still considered a luxury for most people across India, the mushrooming of smartphones and cheap internet packages have meant that people from all walks of life can be found playing the odd game on their mobiles while the Covid-19 pandemic added many more to the PC gaming community.
When it comes to online gaming, in a price-sensitive market like India, mobile gaming leads the pack due to the obvious factors including affordable hardware, portability and availability of free games. Mobile gaming is expected to be close to 85% of the overall market for the rest of the year. While PC and Console based gaming is mainly driven by strong community support, these have gained traction as norms around social distancing have forced people to stay indoors. The latter is also considered to be ideal for more serious and regular gamers who prefer games that are immersive and graphics-intensive.
As per a report, India’s online gaming industry is seeing an impressive growth rate and is expected to have a revenue of $1 billion by the end of 2020. With the slow and steady relaxations in the lockdown, the gaming industry will see radical expansion and new trends will be dominating the gaming landscape in the country.
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Here’s a quick look at the few upcoming gaming trends that are likely to lead the industry in the second half of the year and ahead:
Hybrid Hardware
While we have gaming-focused computing products like ROG and Strix from Asus, Predator from Acer, Omen from HP and more, the recent lockdowns have brought forward a situation where a lot of people are forced to work or study remotely thus were required to buy dedicated gear to work remotely. To cater to these users, brands are coming up with hybrid devices that are handy to complete day to day office work and powerful enough to help users enjoy the best in the class gaming experience.
In our discussion, Arnold Su, Business Head of Asus's Consumer & Gaming PC section, also identified this need and mentioned that the company is planning to come up with devices that will help the purpose of both gaming and professional work.
These devices – both desktops and laptops that offer the best of both the worlds have already started making their way to the market and are expected to soon become the preferred gaming machines for millennial gamers.
Streaming games
Cloud-based games with Netflix-like subscription model is already becoming a hot favourite among the users who do not like to invest heavily in hardware, however, still do not want to compromise in their gaming experience. The most popular examples of Cloud gaming are Google’s Stadia and Apple’s Arcade.
Cloud-based gaming offers similar immersive experience on any device like a smartphone, tablet, desktop, laptop or even a TV. Users can use the same account to log in from a browser on the desktop browser or mobile to enjoy the game at the comfort of their homes or while on the go.
Apart from Google and Apple other cloud gaming projects are GeForce Now, PlayStation Now and Project Cloud while the TheGamingProject, our desi avatar of cloud gaming solution.
VR Gaming
Virtual Reality gaming is the extreme level of immersive gaming experience. Even then the acceptance of VR gaming has been limited until now marred by mostly the cost of hardware as well as the dedicated space required to play the games. However, with the help of powerful cloud-gaming servers coupled with low latency networks, cloud-based VR Gaming can democratize VR gaming by letting people enjoy VR games even on their average-specced systems. It can be considered as a gold standard of computing and gaming solution, that can serve most requirements without too much additional cost.
Local Content
Over the last few years, localization of content has been the mantra. With the arrival of 4G, we saw internet connectivity becoming affordable and available to the masses. English or even Hindi knowledge was no more a basic qualification to access the internet. Similarly, in gaming, the focus is expected to shift towards localizing the content.
While the users in metros and bigger cities will still be busy playing Red Dead Redemption 2, Doom: Eternal, Assassin’s Creed: Horizon, COD or Metro Exodus etc., however the users based in smaller towns prefer content that they can relate to. Hence the demand for local content will be on an all-time high.
During the current lockdowns mobile arcade games like Ludo, Snakes and ladders, Carrom etc saw a massive increase in the user base and were downloaded in millions. Similarly, localized PC gaming content will be in huge demand with more and more developers focusing on creating games based on the local preference.
