Gaming

Executive Summary

The online gaming industry is set to boom. The increasing awareness of gaming in the developing world promises enormous potential in the coming decade. This boom is driven by various factors including increased PC penetration; growing popularity of MMOG'S and console games, next generation technology in gaming arena and easy availability and affordability of data enabled mobile phones and above all, the enthusiasm of today's youth.

This report starts off with an introduction about the various key markets in the world according to their size and growth potential. The global gaming market is set to double till 2010. The key markets for the gaming industry are US, China, Korea and Japan. India is fast emerging as a key market though it's yet to catch up with developed countries in terms of size and market share. Amongst these Chinese market is growing at the fastest rate of 48% followed by Korea and Japan. US market which was traditionally the biggest market is being increasingly threatened by these Asian giants. The Indian market in particular is set to grow up to 900% of today's size with mobile gaming accounting for a majority of this share.

The report goes on to give a detailed analysis of the Indian Gaming market. In the near future the indian market is expected to grow by 900% with mobile gaming accounting for the bulk of the revenues. Most indian developers are looking at the international market.This trend is so pronounced that most of the big Indian development companies have distribution and marketing partners abroad and 75 to 80% of their turnover comes in from the international market. MMOG has been a big success in all other markets but it is still in its nascent stage in india and lack of PC penetration will hinder the growth of MMOG market in India. A brief survey of MMOG players is given which gives an insight about their gaming habits. Market share of PC and console gaming in India is expected to decline during 2005-2009 as mobile gaming outpaces PC and console sales. The IAMAI and IMRB study estimates that the Internet user base is likely to cross the 40 million mark by March 2007.

Next we have a brief description of different type of Online Gaming. The various categories include PC based gaming, MMOG/ MMORPG, mobile gaming and console gaming.

MMORPG can be defined as a game capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously across the globe. These games comprise of a life like 3D environment where players can play across any distance. MMORPGs are popular in emerging markets of Asia and are likely to continue to grow in popularity and revenue, year after year in all regions of Asia. In the US the market share of MMORPG is considerably lower. In terms of revenue this category is the most promising however government regulation and increased pc penetration can reduce its potential.

The Indian PC gaming industry is also explained in great detail. The factors that could lead to future growth are also highlighted.

The mobile gaming market is perhaps the most dynamic market in online gaming both in India and abroad. This boom is driven by greater availability of feature-rich mobile handsets at affordable prices,