Hasn’t it become quite nauseous to hear that the gaming industry in India is at a nascent stage? Though people in India are getting excited about gaming, there is a community of professionals in India who are passionate about the industry as a whole. These people are mainly the ones who work in the gaming industry in India. Gaming in India is growing and developing.
One way Zapak (yeah, them) has been awarding them is by holding events, they started the trend by holding the India Gaming Summit 2007 last year in Mumbai. Well, today was the inaugural session of the India Gaming Summit 2008 at the Nehru Centre in Mumbai.
Last year it was a gala event at a posh hotel, though this year too scale wise it was no different, there were some differences. Last year, there were foreign dignitaries but IGS 2008 seemed to be devoid of them. Rohit Sharma, the COO, Zapak Digital Entertainment later gave an explanation that they wanted to concentrate on the Indian gaming industry.
But that was later; the welcome note was given by Sharma who then called upon the stage Amit Khanna, the president of Reliance Entertainment. The conference hall was packed by now, we could see the bigwigs of the Indian gaming industry. The notable ones were Ajay Khanna from EA India and Quentin Staes-Polet from Kreeda. Amit Khanna seemed elated to deliver a lecture on gaming and honestly admitted that though the younger generation is the digital natives, he is a digital migrant.
As it has become customary at gaming conferences in India, there was a mention of the evolution of gaming and how it all started. But more importantly what Khanna said was related to experience economy. It is true as these days most people would love to experience a brand or a game before they buy it. He quoted good figures and mentioned that there was growth in the gaming business despite the slowdown.
It goes without saying that game design and story telling are an integral part of video games and Reliance Entertainment head spoke how Japanese video games have influence from anime and manga while the American developers use the sci-fi genre to give a new dimension to stories in video games. The subject was later bought up in the audience question and answer round where there was a small debate on Bollywood in video games, which we feel is a pretty good idea if executed properly.
Amit Khanna was bullish on video games and digital entertainment and later shared with us that Big TV crossed the million mark a day before. Let’s hope that Reliance can use the same platform to achieve a similar success in popularizing gaming, especially home consoles.
After the speech of chief guest, it was the turn of Intel’s Prakash Bagri to deliver the keynote address. Just like the others, the director for marketing at Intel (South Asia) too seemed optimistic about the gaming industry and said that gaming is recession-proof and will have great growth. He shared his insights on game innovations, broadband penetration, content and IP protection, localization versus international and driving standards. Intel just launched the Intel i7 processors, which has got not only the technophiles but also the gamers excited because of its capabilities.
The keynote address was followed by the first session of the day, which was on gaming in India, today and tomorrow. The stage was shared by Rohit Sharma, Quentin Staes-Polet, Prakash Bagri and Sashi Reddi from FXLabs.
Staes-Polet spoke on the lack of infrastructure. But he pointed out that besides broadband, there are various other segments in India such as business and retail that have to be improved to give an impetus to the gaming industry in the country. But the Kreeda head seemed optimistic about the whole thing.
Sashi Reddi too had interesting things to say about gaming in India. The FXLabs founder has previously worked on artificial intelligence as well with the United States defense industry. He revealed that they are working on a Ghajini video game, which is based on the upcoming movie featuring Aamir Khan.
As for Prakash Bagri, he pointed out that there should be integrated efforts, something like the India Gaming Summit. He revealed that his company, Intel, is planning to go to schools and colleges, to give an experience to the youth. Bagri also spoke on how they all have to figure it out on the affordability issue.
After that, it was the time to bring down the curtains on the first session of the second India Gaming Summit. Zapak has also organized the India Gaming Expo 2008, which is also taking place presently at the same venue, so is the gaming tournament. But it will be there only till this weekend, so make sure you drop in soon and check it out.