City eyes bigger play in gaming sweepstakes

HYDERABAD: The game is on for the `City of Pearls', which is emerging as the newest playground for gaming startups in India. Flush with a gamefriendly ecosystem nurtured by existing animation and gaming giants like Electronic Arts, DQ Entertainment, Makuta, Gameshastra and [x]cube Labs, a boom in the sale of smartphones and the aggressive stance of the Telangana government in attracting new tech firms, Hyderabad is eyeing a bigger play by outpacing other major gaming hubs such as Bengaluru and Pune.
“Bengaluru was a bigger hub but it has got saturated.Now the industry seems to be shifting to Hyderabad and Pune and I feel Hyderabad has a great advantage. Gaming is perceived to be parallel to IT and Hyderabad being an IT hub... it is but natural for a lot of game developers to come here. Hyderabad even has a very decent sized film industry and these are great enablers,“ Tarun Hinduja, director of city-based Firebolt Entertainment, which specialises in the area of motion capture and 3D art, told TOI here.
Bharath Lingam, CEO, [x]cube Labs, which boasts of the brand Purple Talk, said one of the major reasons Hyderabad is stealing a march over Bengaluru is that talent is “expensive there and the attrition rate is higher“. “A lot of independent studios have come up in Hydera bad in the last few years as it has a conducive ecosystem. The existence of top-notch academic institutions such as IIIT and IIT ensures a constant flow of talent,“ Lingam said, adding that a better quality of life in Hyderabad too is a major draw in luring talent from other parts of the country such as Kolkata, from where many gaming designers hail.
Conservative estimates sug gest there are around 250 gaming companies in the country , of which around 7% are located in Hyderabad, said Nasscom Gaming Forum chairman Rajesh Rao.
However, game developers in the city feel the number is much higher as most of the gaming studios have less than five people and are very low-key .“During 2011-12, Hyderabad probably stood fourth or fifth but now it is emerging as the gaming hub of India. Most of the noted companies in the sector are in Hyderabad. I feel there are anywhere from 45 to 50 big and small gaming companies in the city and the rate at which they are growing is very high,“ said the newly set up Verdict Games Studio founder Vaibhav Bhandari, who has earlier worked with other city-based companies.
Like Bhandari, Zainuddin Fahad, who hails from Mumbai and earlier worked with Gameshastra in the city, too recently founded Ogre Head Studio in Hyderabad.
Agood existing talent base is also proving to be great asset for Hyderabad, said Mumbai-based Mauj Mobile's V-P (products) Anshul Singhal. “We are seeing a rise in the demand for games based on vernacular content. I feel, in this area, Hyderabad has a great advantage in terms of talent,“ he explained.
According to a report by released by Nasscom at the Nasscom Game Developers Conference 2016 (which has returned to Hyderabad after eight years and saw a rousing response with over 1,700 participants), mobile game downloads are expected to grow at a CAGR of 58% over the next five years, going from 1.6 billion downloads in 2016 to an estimated 5.3 billion downloads in 2020.
Cashing in on the favourable macro-economic conditions, the Telangana government too is hard selling the state as an ideal destination for gaming companies. Telangana IT minister KT Rama Rao on Friday once again reiterated the government's intent to encourage the sector by setting up a centre of excellence called `Image City' on the outskirts of Hyderabad with a built up area of 6 lakh sft and equipped with common facilities such as acoustic studios and motion art studio, among others.