ABSTRACT
Esports is a booming global industry where many skilled video gamers compete against each other. It has now made its mark in India as online gaming has become more easily accessible. High-speed internet has become cheaper and readily available in India, thereby revolutionising online mobile gaming by allowing players to compete globally. Pochinki became the hotspot for multiple gaming events as there were approximately 33 million players until PUBG was banned in India. Competitive gaming has gained a reputation in India as Oppo PUBG Mobile India Series 2019 had concluded with Team Soul winning the title and a cash prize of Rs 30 lakh and even CS: GO Team Blaze were runner ups in the ESL India Premiership Summer 2020. This has strengthened India's reputation and has induced global investment with Indian developers also using this opportunity to build games in India. This paper analyses the growth and potential of the eSports industry in India and how it has opened up doors for employment and revenue.
KEYWORDS: Esports, investment, developers, employment, revenue.
INTRODUCTION
" My mother asked me to focus on studies instead of playing games all day, "said Naman Mathur a prominent Indian streamer in an interview with 1Up Gaming. It is evident that eSports was never seen as a career choice until now, and no one could have ever thought that playing games can yield revenue and even boost employment. Even Sonu Nigam boasted of his son being a “ top gamer ” in Dubai. In the last few years, India's eSports industry has been proliferating, mainly because of the internet becoming extremely affordable and easy to access. The number of internet users in India nearly doubled from approximately 300 million in 2015 to 700 million in 2020 (Statistia, 2020). Apart from that, videos of many Indian streamers have gone viral, especially after PUBG was launched in India; motivating many people to come up with gaming content and participate in gaming tournaments. A Google-KPMG projected online gaming industry in India to touch $1.1 billion by 2021 (Times Now, 2020). This paper analyses the growth and potential of the eSports industry in India and how it has opened up doors for employment and revenue.
The first video game is known to be created in 1958 by a Physicist William Higinbotham who later mentions in a magazine interview that he had thought "it might liven up the place to have a game that people could play, and which would convey the message that our scientific endeavours have relevance for society." The game he created was a simple tennis game, but his idea inspired many advanced ones to follow. It is important to note how differently and competitively gaming is viewed today compared to what Physicist William said. The gaming experience has evolved from Super Mario and Contra Force on Nintendo to highly realistic games like Grand Theft Auto, Fortnite, PUBG, and many more available on multiple platforms. Gaming was always seen as a recreational activity, but games were competitive from the beginning. For instance, Super Mario Bros., an extremely addictive game, became popular among speedrunners. Speedrunners try to master a game and skilfully complete it in the shortest duration of time to hold the world record for the same. Darbian is a speedrunner held the world record for Super Mario Bros for four years until Kosmic beat him by just a second. Similarly, an Indian Youtuber/speedrunner was extremely close to beating the world record for a game- Getting Over It. The development of the online gaming network with the ability to interact with multiple players across the globe has taken competitive gaming to another level.
India has not always had it easy when it involves competitive gaming. It was not really on the esports' industry radar until mobile games hit the stores. PUBG Mobile made PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds which was initially released in 2017 became accessible to players in countries like India for free in 2018 making India one among the most critical audiences for PUBG Mobile, as even players with latency problems and poor computer software could easily access PUBG on their smartphones, proving that the country is interested in competitive gaming but just needed an opportunity to increase engagement. Downloads of flagship and Lite versions of PUBG gaming app account for 24% of its global downloads (Times Now, 2020). As a result, the Indian government's decision to ban popular gaming app PUBG Mobile has caused high financial costs to game's developer Tencent. The Chinese conglomerate has $34 billion in market value in two days since the announcement (Jagran English, 2020). "Talking of other games, we have Call of Duty Mobile (CODM), Free Fire, and Fortnite which are also battle royale games. There is no doubt that PUBG Mobile did accelerate the Indian ecosystem, but now is the chance for other video games to grab the void (if any) created by PUBG Mobile and a massive opportunity for homegrown games and video game developers to ride on the wave," said Lokesh Suji, Director, ESFI and Vice President, Asian Esports Federation. Blue Hole Corporation went on to cut ties with Tencent and decided to set up servers in India in collaboration with Microsoft by investing 100 million dollars in India solely for re-launching the game for the Indian audience.
The development of the eSports circuit in India not only diversifies competition but also induces the development of games in India. Rockstar Games, for example, has an estimated net worth of $3.5 billion (The Wealth Record, 2020). The point here being that development of games in India can be a source of high revenue and also boost employment as individuals could seek building a career in the gaming industry. Recently, Raji: An Ancient Epic, a console worthy game based on Indian Mythology was launched in India for Rs. 539 on Steam. Shruti Ghosh, Avichal Singh and Ian Maude were the three founding members who kickstarted this project with just their savings and struggled for three years to get this game out in the market. The game received a lot of positive reviews (with steam rating the game 9 out of 10) which in turn will provide a conducive environment for many more. Many competitive gaming projects like FAU-G built to promote Prime Minister's AtmaNirbhar movement are also under development in India. At present, there are over 400 gaming startups in India and with more than 500 million smartphone users as of December 2019, mobile gaming has taken the lead by tapping 85% share of online gaming in India (Financial Express, 2020). Thus, it is evident that several gaming developers will capitalise on the increasing number of smartphone users in India.
India recorded about 365 million online gamers in the financial year 2020. This number was estimated to increase to 510 million by the fiscal year 2022. Overall, India ranked the highest in terms of the growth downloads of online games on app stores with a growth rate of 165 per cent between 2016 to 2018 (irnpost, 2020). Thus, this laid down the foundation for global investment; and collaboration with India. Popular online multiplayer game Dauntless which was launched on multiple gaming consoles like PS4 and Xbox amassed 10 million users within the first few weeks of launch in 2019. The game was developed by a San Francisco based company Phoenix and Iron Galaxy, but an Indian firm named Lakshya Digital too contributed to the development of this game. It rendered hundreds of assets including characters, creatures, vehicles, costumes and props. This company has also contributed to the development of popular games like Just Cause 3 and Sea of Thieves. A multitude of career trajectories is possible in the gaming industry in India as the number of registered companies developing games in India grew tenfold from 25 companies in 2010 to 275 in nine years. Nearly 23,000 gaming job openings are available in the country with more than 200 startups that are filling these demand-supply gaps currently present (Inventiva, 2020). Thus, multiple employment opportunities are present in the field of game programming, game designing, testing, narrative designing, game animation, audio engineering and professional gaming or reviewing. Fantasy gaming companies like MPL are also building their reputation in the gaming arena but are not the driving force for the eSports circuit but instead a product of its growth.
Online gaming is one of the few sectors which had flourished and raised employment when others struggled due to the global economic recession in 2020. In fact, Tokyo based company, Sony reported a massive 53% growth in April and June 2020 (Inventiva, 2020). India has seen a massive rise in Esports tournaments and gaming from small gaming tournaments in cafes and colleges to now multiple global and regional events with price pool worth lakhs. It is also expected that eSports will soon make a place for itself in the Olympics since winning a competitive game requires days of practice and involves team effort with multiple strategies and that too in real-time. Intel India sales and marketing VP and MP, Prakash Malia pointed out, "it is the confluence of most of these stakeholders and a strong infrastructure that will ensure that the Esports industry in India has a constant growth." Esports has done well in its infancy, and the Indian gaming market has caught the eye of global investors. Soon enough, India will have an excellent gaming ecosystem with top-notch infrastructure ready to compete and collaborate globally.
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