Factfile: India

According to NASSCOM, India’s trade body for IT and other services, the market for games development in India was estimated at $30m in 2005 and is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate of 78 per cent, reaching a value of $300m by 2009. NASSCOM says that mobile gaming will dominate the market with its share in the total Indian gaming market expected to increase from 53 per cent in 2005 to 68 per cent by 2009.

[img :357]For games, key services currently outsourced in gaming include production and testing activities. But the country’s animation talent base means that it’s also becoming a target for art outsourcing too. The size of the Indian animation (which includes production of animated films) market in India was estimated at $285m in 2005 and NASSCOM says it is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate of 35 per cent and grow to $950m by 2009. The film/movies entertainment sector contributes as much as 68 percent of the total Indian animation market.

This has spurred a number of Indian companies to change their business model – many are moving from an outsourcing only business to a co-production model.

In terms of the local market, while games in the area are predominantly played on PC, India is showing the signs of a fast-accelerating games culture around consoles. Although the market is small, at 500,000 consoles (65 per cent of which are PS2s, according to SCEE, and the second largest sector being PSP at 75,000 units), signs are that Indian gamers are receptive to console games.

www.nasscom.in