It’s been a year since we interviewed Atindriya Bose, the country manager for Sony Computer Entertainment India. Things change fast in a complex market that is India and things have definitely turned around in the Indian gaming industry. So GameGuru.in (GG) caught up with Mr. Bose (AB) at the recent PlayStation Experience in Mumbai and had a small conversation with him. Here is the whole interview:
GG: How has Sony PlayStation performed in the last twelve months in India? Are you happy with the performance?
AB: Very happy, obviously, this is why you are seeing this kind of growth in the marketing investment in terms of products, everything getting aligned to what we always promised that we will do for this market. You will see Indian games coming into this market in a short while, which are not first party games developed in London with Indian content. These are Indian games developed by Indian developers in India with Indian content. So Hanuman will come in and there are few more that will unbend. We are pretty happy and pretty upbeat about it.
GG: So what India-centric games are coming in?
AB: There is a Hanuman game. There are two games, which are quiz base games, more on the serious side, educative in nature. Then there is another game that has been signed up and will perhaps be out towards the first half of the next financial year, which is around the domestic Indian games. The rural, rustic Indian games and that’s the one that will come in.
GG: What platforms will these games come on?
AB: Mostly we are working for the PS2 platform. That’s the easiest and that’s perhaps the platform that is driving penetration of the Indian console industry. But with the type of response we are seeing from the PSP also and PS2 – PSP closeness of it, few of these games can come into the PSP. So we are evaluating everything in terms of the engine that is required, in terms of the engine that will make it PSP and everything.
GG: Any games on Bollywood?
AB: No, not yet.
GG: Any plans in the pipeline?
AB: Lots of plans but there is a huge amount of concept-selling that needs to be done to the Bollywood studio people. Also, they have to realize what the game can do for them. That all is the issue. They have to realize it’s like movie making, a console game cannot be seen as a mobile game or on online game which can be done in the last one month.
They have to expose us to the story line, which obviously from the IP side they have to be very cagey. It requires a lot of paperwork. And the second thing is they have expose it well in advance and create a storyline, which is similar to the film storyline but adjust it to a gameplay. Then you might as well do a UMD of the movie.
GG: What needs to be done? Do you think there is a change of perception in Bollywood when it comes to video games?
AB: Yes, there is a lot of attitude change. They definitely see the value. But as the challenge of every game development company or every game development concept in India is, the challenge is perhaps the government itself. They are not realizing the potential of the game developing industry in India. Unless a person can get into IP creation targeted towards Indians, so long as he has the confidence that the domestic market is huge. He will break even at least in the domestic market and take the profit outside because there are lots of NRIs who will buy it. But if your import duty is so high, that restricts the proliferation on the console, you obviously are postponing the growth of the market.
And by that time there is adequate growth and adequate console base for game developers to create games, the world game development might have moved into a segment but they will have the same sort of handicap they are facing in the PS2 development. Ideally speaking the console base should grow very fast now. Many of these developers should do their PS2 games, create a segment where they are doing the PS2 games, shift gears into PSP games and keep themselves ready if they want to flag off the PS3 venture or a next-gen venture. They do not get into an eight year lag but are working with a two year lag and with a very fast learning curve.
GG: Can you elaborate on the performance of the Sony consoles in India?
AB: If I look at last fiscal. It grew over the previous fiscal by about seven times. Even if I look at the running rate of this year with the economic crisis and all those things being talked about, we are still going to grow three to thee and a half times in the console base alone in console sales. The software sales in both the cases have been even more encouraging. Last year, we had a 10x growth. Here also we will have a good quality growth in terms of the total units of software that is getting sold.
GG: What about Resistance 2? When is the exact release date? Will there be a special function?
AB: No, No, no. It is all aligned to the European launches. The only reason that in India it takes time is the shipping time. There is two months, one and a half months shipping time from Europe. New models, we always get that lag.
GG: Has Sony India planned LittleBigPlanet PS3 Bundles or Resistance 2 PS3 Bundles?
AB: We are looking at it most probably. We will look at few bundles. Price points, obviously not decided yet. In December, we will be looking at bundles. But in India, you always have to play that game of balancing the logistics and keeping it simple but price point late to do the penetration.
GG: Then what games are you considering for the PS3 bundles in India?
AB: The ideal two choices would be MotorStorm and Resistance, I think, I think so.
GG: No LittleBigPlanet PS3 Bundle for India?
AB: LittleBigPlanet is still a concept seller, even to the Indian audience. So perhaps that is done with a lesser exposure to risk if you don’t bundle it. Resistance 2 and MotorStorm, you don’t have to think about it. It is a natural choice. If I do a Killzone bundle, automatically things will get picked up.
GG: So you are planning a Killzone 2 Bundle in April?
AB: Depends on when it comes in.
GG: Any idea about the release dates of Killzone 2?
AB: No one is declaring anything. I only get ‘coming soon’.
GG: What about new PS2 and PSP bundles? Any special bundles for India?
AB: For PSP bundles, we have always looked at social games and currently what we are running is not so much in a bundle but a sales scheme. It is not a bundle. So that way, we will keep on rotating the games. On the PSP, we have already done the Echochrome bundle. We have done a Buzz Master Quiz bundle, which has done well. Most probably we will do a Buzz Brain Bender bundle. Only thing is again if the game is niche, we try restricting the number of bundles because still a concept selling is happening. So if the game is not niche, we are more confident about the bundle.
GG: What about the PSP-3000? What forecasts do you have for that? How many are you planning to ship in India and how many do you expect to sell?
AB: PSP-3000? That should rock as the Slim and Lite rocked! The Slim and Lite actually changed the curve of the PSP. This is the one that should also do well. Visual is outstanding, the second is the microphone. Forget that how much you have done. Like between the grey market and us, we have already crossed 1, 10,000 PSP in India, which is the installed the base of PSP. It has crossed a lakh. It is a huge number. That running speed should be there for the PSP for quite some time and it is growing.
GG: What about price cuts? Will there be price cuts for the PSP and PS2 in India?
AB: Currently we are trying to figure out how to figure the biggest risk of the financial turmoil has been the exchange rate, nothing else. Not a slowdown of the demand and all. PS2 we have cut down the price, it is Rs. 6490 with a game, effective price Rs. 5990. PSP, the new launch is Rs. 9490. As of now, we are perhaps now debating the price cuts simply but trying to hold on as much as to the existing prices, given the pressure of the exchange rates.
GG: When can the Indian gamers expect a PS3 price cuts?
AB: On direct basis, it depends on the government when they do the tax rationalization. That is for the Indian market. Tax rationalization happens, we are committed to passing it on. No questions asked. In terms of the product strategy, global product strategy, nothing as of now. No declaration as of now.
GG: What about SingStar Bollywood and Buzz? How have they performed?
AB: SingStar Bollywood is doing pretty well. It has also opened up the SingStar franchise for us. In India alone without the bundles, we have done around five to five and a half thousand. With the bundles, you put another thousand five hundred units and over the winter perhaps another thousand to thousand five hundred units of the bundles will go. But it has also opened up a huge genre of English SingStar coming in. What we are trying is putting an experimental inch of the area. Because the market is still nascent, so if we do our tests right and know like what to start off where, we will be in a much better position to switch on.
GG: What about the PlayStation Experience? What kind of response did you see last year? What kind of response are you expecting now?
AB: We are doing it in an area where the traffic is almost guaranteed. We are seeing definitely the number of people in more than the last years’. That we have already seen. More number of families are coming in. There is more number of families with people wearing sarees coming in. And that is what the purpose of this event is. Every one should get the feeling that it is for everyone. The gamer should have their best in time in terms of the gameplay. But if a family audience comes in, the father should come out laughing, the mother should come out saying that is a thing worth investing.
GG: How has PlayStation Experience changed the perception of PlayStation as a brand? Do you think it has changed it…
AB: It has, it has! PlayStation is more accessible. People are being able to define what you can do on a PlayStation because of the experiential marketing. Definitely it has changed. And for the gamers also it has become a destination thing where they really feel good that so much of the new things are being exposed to them.
GG: So do you see a spike in sales after the PlayStation Experience?
AB: Each of the marketing element is definitely is generally adding to our… It is not spiking because spike is perhaps a bad term to use because spike comes down. It always gives us the step that smoothing, smooth step of the curve upward that is definitely happening. Our TV commercial has seen that result. Our free game with a PS3 that we have launched that has seen a growth even after Diwali. That sales growth has just gone up. We are giving a free platinum game with every PS3 now. This PlayStation Experience should make people get the urgency to shake it out further.
GG: PS3 Slim. Is Sony working on PS3 Slim? Do you think the PS3 should be slimmed down and will it make a difference?
AB: I have heard a lot of reports from the Internet. See this sort of product concepts, there is a continuous improvement lab that is working on the PS3, working on PSP, working on the PS2 also, working on peripherals. But that obviously is restricted to the development group. Slimming down and all those terms are very, very style statement. So that is a style statement. Every device and PlayStation will be no exception is trying to move very fast towards the convergence area. Convergence is the thing. Everyone is trying convergence in their own way.
So more than Slim and Lite and all, more features, utility features are getting added. It is what is important. If you look at the PSP, the visual appeal is important, but if you look at in a very subtle way, they have made it into a communicator device. So that is a more important as a personal thing, whether they slim it down, so long as they don’t make it bigger, because this is a stylish size. So long as that happens, I don’t see any issue.
GG: Nintendo just revealed the DSi, which has two cameras. Is Sony planning out to come out with a PSP that has a camera embedded?
AB: Not a built-in. We already have a PSP with a… You always have to give people a choice. There is no reason why we cannot. But I am perhaps not the person to speak of that. The important part is you already have a camera. Different companies will do it the different way. It is the question of at what point you realize the cost addition is not going to get back to you and you can make it modular and give consumer a choice.
GG: So we can expect a PSP with a camera?
AB: I don’t know. I don’t know. But in terms of the functionality, you already have that. That is the point I am making. Only thing is that as compared to anything else, here the choice is with the consumer, whether he wants to pay that extra. At Rs. 10, 490, a PSP with a built in camera with no choice versus Rs. 9490 with a separate camera is upto you to choose. I think the current breed of consumers look at those modular things with a much higher level of acceptance.
GG: What about the PSP Phone? There were rumors that Sony was planning a PSP Phone? What do you have to say about that?
AB: Same, speculation! See, internal speculation is not something that at my level sitting in India I can ever comment. The moment we know anything about it and it has no PR embargo, you will all be the first person to know. At that time you can always say, ‘Yes, I said so.’ Oh, they should have done it. Good idea but they have dropped it but whatever way. But otherwise it is a speculation. It is like a game. You give it to a creative person, a PS3 or a PSP or even a PS2, he can create his own avatar of what can be done with it.