Gaming industry to be a trillion-dollar economy by 2022: IAMAI

“Gaming industry can become a billion-dollar market in India by 2020 as the number of mobile users are expected to reach 700 million by then,” observed Digbijoy Shukla, Head – Startup Ecosystem, AISPL. Agreeing with this, Akshat Rathee, MD, Nodwin Gaming, highlighted how E-sports is creating numerous jobs every day and shared that 15 per cent of the gaming market shared is owned by the eSports sector. 

The two industry experts were speaking at the 2nd edition of GATO 2.0, organised by Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). The day-long conference had discussions around the various facets of digital gaming in India. Industry experts brainstormed on the potential of various online games and will chart a roadmap for its future growth. The conference also hosted special workshops for developers by AISPL (Amazon Internet Services Private Limited) and Amazon Alexa. The conference brought together the gamut of gaming fraternity. 

This year, the conference also included GATO Awards for the first time to recognise and promote the efforts of the talented Indian developers. The Awards includes categories like Best Gaming App, Best Live Game, Best Fantasy Game App, Best use of AR/VR in a game; Best Card Game on App, awards will also be given to the Emerging Indian Gaming Company, Best Affiliate Partner for gaming and Best Mobile Ad Network for Gaming. 

Haja Sheriff, Lead, Business Development, Alexa Skills, delivered a keynote address at the conference and shared that “India is the development hub globally” and also highlighted that 80,000+ Alexa skills are growing every day. 

Addressing the panel of gaming skills in India, Abhishek Shah, CEO, CommerceX, said that hundreds and thousands jobs will be created by eSports in India. 

Addressing the panel on design in gaming and need and importance of gaming, Mohit Agarwal, Founder, Adda 52, said, “Game as a medium definitely provides new and powerful affordances, but it is the design within the medium to control those affordances that will establish the effectiveness of a gaming platform. If we want to enhance the appeal of our games, it is essential to recognise what makes an experience entertaining, and how such an experience can be shaped which is only possible by developing an effective game design. In this age of digital transformation and with the rapid growth of the online gaming industry it is essential that the online gaming companies must focus on developing a strong online gaming interface for its users and design is an integral part of this process.” 

The Summit speaker’s line-up included several high profile industry stalwarts like Haja Sheriff, Lead - Business Development for Alexa Skills, Amazon India; Abhishek Shah, CEO, ConversionX; Pariekshit Maadishetti, Managing Director, Grid Logic Group; Akshat Rathee, MD, Nodwin Gaming; Ashish Gupta, GM - Lead Games Ecosystem, Reliance Jio; Ankit Gupta, Apps Partnerships, Google; Mohit Agarwal, Co-founder & CEO, Adda5; Anurag Khurana, Head - Esports, Reliance Jio; Amin Rozani, MD, The Spartan Poker; Navneet Makharia, Director & CEO, Ability Games; Prosenjit Ghosh, Head - Sales & Marketing, Playstation Division, Sony India; Rajan Navani, Vice-Chairman & MD, JetSynthesys; and Sundar Raman, CEO - Sports, Reliance Industries, among others. The discussions were around topics like Design in Gaming: Need and importance?; The Rise of AI and AR/VR induced gaming; Mainstreaming Esports in India; The aesthetics of marketing a game in India; Responsible Gaming: Player Protection and Safety. 

The conference also hosted workshops focused on the central idea of building relevant skills for the gaming fraternity of India. The workshops were conducted by developers from AISPL and Amazon Alexa. Some of the topics that were dissected in the workshops include ‘Build the Cake Walk Skill’, ‘the future of voice-based experiences in gaming’, and ‘Add Memory to the skill to improve your Voice User Interface’. 

The 2nd edition of GATO 2.0 Gaming for Tomorrow sought to evangelise and also promote the sector as one of the pillars for driving the Digital India dream, which has the potential to generate revenue and employment generation for the country. The conference addressed certain key issues of the sector such as payments, design, monetisation, marketing, regulation, etc., and discussed how to work with the ecosystem players to make this a trillion dollar industry.