This is a big move for Indiagames. The Mumbai-based gaming company has launched a “Games-On-Demand” channel for the broadband users of Airtel. The gaming channel was launched by cricketer Sachin Tendulkar at a high decibel function in Delhi on Thursday (it’s for the first time a VAS product was launched in India by a brand ambassador as big as Sachin; Hey Nazara folks, any comments?). It’s a suit of games which subscribers can download and play unlimited number of times for Rs 199 a month. Currently the suit has 50 games which will shoot upto 300 in a few months’ time. The suit will have games from all major games developers in the world like Microsoft and Atari – and has titles like Age of Empires, Star Fury, Driv3R and Flight Simulator.
I think it will be an interesting market to tap, and with this move Indiagames is moving from a B2B play to a B2C play which means it can earn bigger money in the long run.
I spoke to Vishal Gondal, the CEO of Indiagames. He says, “To start with, we are targeting those people who buy pirated games. An 85 per cent of the games bought in India are pirated.” And Rs 199 a month looks like an affordable price point for not just gamers but also for the common folks who use broadband.
As of now, the service is available only on Airtel. However, Indiagames has plans to tie up with other operators. Currently, there are 1.5 million broadband users India, which is expected to touch 20 million in the next five years or so. Gondal wants to penetrate into at least 10 per cent of this base.
Indiagames has been primarily a mobile games developer since 2002, but that may not continue for long. “I see a 50:50 ratio of mobile and online games over time,” Gondal concludes.
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