UTV Group: â??Indian market wonâ??t accept consolesâ??

Ronnie Screwvala, chairman of Indian media firm UTV Group whose subsidiary studio Ignition Entertainment is set to release console title El Shaddai: Asecention of the Metatron later this year, has rubbished the notion of console gaming taking off in India.

In an interview with the BBC Screwvala, who’s company has invested £75m in three upcoming console titles from UK-based Ignition Entertainment, said that the ‘psyche’ of Indian gamers is not used to paying for content.

"India has yet to get into the cultural habit of video gaming, and equally important is that the Indian psyche is not used to paying for content. People were very used to getting pirated copies at a fraction of the cost you would expect to pay in the west,” he said.

"To change that takes a decade, you are not going to change that overnight. In the mobile and online space, India has the potential to become a nation of gamers. But in the console space, this is unlikely due to the access point, because you need the hardware.”

Elsewhere, Screwvala compared the Indian gaming market to the Korean and Chinese equivalents, where a vast amount gamers play MMOs.

"The massive multiplayer concept is almost gambling like in the way it hooks people in and that is the way I see India get into gaming," he said.