Games like LittleBigPlanet place a strong emphasis on the community aspect of gaming, which is missing without PSN. There are also many good PSN games coming. Do you think its time we get PSN here and do you think people would actually use a service like PSN in India?
I think it will be. The fact that you can have so many casual games at low prices; $5 is like Rs 200! With PSN, the utility factor of the machine would be enhanced tremendously. And the fact that not everyone can find a way to get online in the current circumstances, once it is official, I think we will be able to aggregate a far bigger community. And who knows, it could give an opportunity for Indian content to show up on PSN. So it will be beneficial, but I think there are typical bandwidth issues that are coming in the way, because in Europe, Sony deals with over 100 markets. So to be able to localise and customise an offering for each country is time-consuming. So the desire and intent is there, it’s just that certain things are beyond our control from a timeline point of view.
But is this something that’s in the works?
Yes, it is. That’s what we were told. Sony handles that. What role we may have in the future in terms of microtransactions etc, we’re not sure yet. But something that’s online probably doesn’t need an aggregator like us.
Do you think Indian studios developing games targeted at the Indian audience will sell? Will it work?
It will work, but mostly with a lot of first-time users and the vernacular population. These are people who are a lot more rooted in the Indian culture, versus the more Western-oriented audience that is our current base. The current audience is used to a certain quality, whereas what may come out from India in the beginning may not be as good in terms of graphics, gameplay, etc. So if people start that benchmarking, critics will kill the game anyway. I think that would be wrong; we need to give local content a chance. We need to target this content to local consumers who see value in it. So pricing, distribution and targeting to a particular audience is important. It is not meant for you.
Like you said, these games won’t appeal to existing gamers, but to a whole new audience. Then does it make sense for a developer to make this game? Will they make money from it?
Why not? Gaming in India, in terms of console sales is touching only 5,00,000. About 6.5 million PCs are sold each year, of which 2 million go into homes. So console gaming has a penetration of about 0.25 per cent in households, whereas PCs have 16 per cent penetration, and this is only in the top 20 cities. Considering that, consoles have a long way to go. When MTV was just international and English, they were a niche channel. Today, MTV is mass because they’ve gone vernacular; it’s a combination of Hindi and English. They’ve tried to connect with the youth and their language. This country is driven by the mass language and I don’t see why that should be any different for video games.
Westernised English content will only cater to the top 30-40 per cent of the market. The moment you start to go below, you will need local content and vernacular content. You need to start somewhere and test the market, so maybe in 5-10 years once the market reaches there, we will have a solid strategy. In Russia, a Russian SKU of any game will sell 15-20 times more than an English SKU. That’s why Russia is such a large market and we’re couple of years behind them. So these are positive developments and they need to be encouraged. It’s a big risk that people who are funding and developing these games are taking because the basic math doesn’t match up. That’s where guys like you and the so-called hardcore community needs to give the first-time gamer and casual gamers a chance rather than taking a negative position and slamming these games like you guys seem to be doing. It’s good when you’re criticising a game that’s made to be of that standard, but compare apples with apples. Applaud the purpose, because in the end it is helping to grow the gaming community.
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