The role of game studios in expanding the Indian market
We are used to playing a game of rummy online, buying in-game assets in the Metaverse, or enjoying gaming with Virtual Reality (VR) headsets. It is hard to imagine that gaming studios began operations more than 50 years ago. Technology was comparatively elementary during those days. However, they laid the foundation of the gaming industry as we know it today.
Long before you were downloading rummy APKs and buying the latest consoles, companies like Atari had introduced arcade games and video game consoles. The role of these gaming studios has not changed since those days. The gaming industry relies on the pathbreaking innovations of gaming studios, which continue to help the industry expand.
Behind the Gaming Blockbusters
While we are quite used to new games being introduced by leading gaming studios, sometimes, one person is enough to create a successful game. Back in 1982, David Crane created Pitfall! For Atari 2600. More recently, in 2009, Minecraft was the creation of one person, Markus Persson. So, many would wonder if game studios are as indispensable as they are perceived to be.
One of the primary reasons that make them important is, of course, budget. The gaming community has gotten used to high-quality games with an immersive experience. While a developer can conceptualise and create a game, top-quality output requires adequate finance.
Talking of big budgets, the game worth mentioning is Star Citizen. Cloud Imperium Games has been developing this combat simulation game for over a decade now and is estimated to have spent over $630 million! Built for a production cost of $440 million, CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 is one of the most expensive games ever released. Insomniac Games developed Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 for $315 million, which was later released by Sony.
Sony had also released The Last of Us Part II and Horizon Forbidden West, while Activision released Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, all of which had development costs of over $200 million. You can develop a mobile game with the most basic of functionalities at around $50,000, but additional features and effort increase the cost exponentially. PC games are much more expensive than mobile games, and developing a console game is a level higher in cost. Developing a virtual reality game or an online game without studio backing is almost unthinkable.
Thus, all the blockbuster gaming titles that we enjoy every day are bankrolled to a large extent by gaming studios with deep pockets. And they are well-equipped to run the operations on a war footing.
Bringing Quality to Your Screen
The gaming studios run a game development operation like a well-oiled machine. They hire developers who are paid as per their expertise. The cost also depends on the place of production. Indian developers get $29 per hour, while it is $55 in Eastern Europe, $70 in the UK and $100 in the USA.
Gaming studios have the financial clout to develop games with different levels of complexity. For instance, a small mobile game may be developed within two to four months. Larger mobile games may even take a year to complete. AAA games made for PC and consoles can take several years. As seen in the case of Star Citizen, it can go on for more than a decade. Game studios foot the development bill for the developer’s team for years at a stretch.
The cost doesn’t stop with the completion of the game development process. Popular gaming platforms charge up to 30% of the game’s profits. In the case of mobile games, a game created for iOS can cost up to 20% more than one created for Android.
Role of Studios in the Gaming Growth in India
Just like in the global gaming landscape, gaming studios in India have been instrumental in introducing quality games for the audience. These studios have ensured that games remain relevant to Indian tastes and preferences. Apart from quality, strategic decisions like localisation and embedding cutting-edge innovations have helped gaming expand in India.
Electronic Arts is one of the top gaming studios with a presence in Hyderabad through two mobile gaming studios. Ubisoft has offices in Pune and Mumbai and is the maker of popular games like Assassin’s Creed and The Division. The makers of GTA 6, Rockstar Games, is another leading studio with a presence in India. The American mobile game company Zynga has a wide remote presence in India and an office in Bengaluru.
Domestic studios have been instrumental when it comes to making a popular rummy APK available to the Indian audience. Platforms like RummyTime have been popularising rummy online by ensuring transparency, fair play and quality gaming experience too.
Excellence in Gaming
Indie games are important to keep the freshness in the gaming world. However, gaming studios have accelerated the expansion of gaming in India in a sustained manner. They have kept the $3.8 billion Indian gaming industry ticking through their high-quality and demographic-relevant offerings.
