The computer penetration is pretty good in Indian urban areas and its on a steady rise. But the problem at the same time is that too many people are stuck with old and obsolete hardware and are reluctant to upgrade. Reasons range from ignorance about upgrading to prohibitive prices. You can gauge it from the fact that ppl are still playing games with i810e onboard video and onboard sound (and trying to play games like Max Payne 2 and GTA3 on these macines).That's one of the reasons why BLC/SWC is still popular. A game trying to succeed in Indian market should be scalable enough to have great graphics on a GF4Ti and ****ty graphics but playable framerates on say, a TNT2 or 810e. Another point one can keep in mind is that one of the most popular...ahem...gaming... vid card today in Indian market is the GF4MX 440. Folks who are really-really interested in gaming (read, those who have no lives except gaming) scrape enough to purchase this card. Most prob it will be replaced with that scaled down GF-FX variant (cant remember the chipset).
Secondly, Indian buyers are very very price sensitive (...misers, some might say). Even a Rs.1000 game is not within the reach of many gamers, especially kids with no source of income of their own. If you ask me, BLC sold out version going at Rs.500 (I think) used to sell like hotcakes not too long ago (infact there are folks still looking for this, only, it seems its not available anymore). In my opinion, it can be a good idea to have a per-user license kind of a thing where 4-5 ppl are legally allowed to share a single original copy of the game, which costs around Rs.1000. They dont care for fancy boxes and thick manuals on high-gloss paper. They are equally happy with a cdrom in the cd-cover with pdf manual inside. Otherwise Rs.1000 is the most reasonable price. Games are infact selling at this price for sometime (though not as much as publishers might wish) and at the moment Rs. 1200 - 1000 is the general price range of new realeases.
Then lack of fast internet deprives Indian gamers of any online multiplayer experience and another incentive of purchasing original game goes.
Game realease in India should get proper media coverage since most of the gamers remain unaware of realeases. It might be in the form of tv and newspaper ads and some good previews and demos in gamings mags.
I might add that even the marketing of games is not very good at the moment. For one thing, the availablity of original games is far behind that of wareaz cds (remember, we have poor internet so piracy is predominantly by way of warez cds and not kaazaa et al). Games are released here months after their release elsewhere and the time-gap is filled with warez cds coming from our south-east asian neighbors. So much so that a game is available within a week of its release in Australia e.g., even though Indian release might still be in the pipeline. Tie-ups with websites like Rediff India (http://in.rediff.com), Indiatimes (www.indiatimes.com) and Baazee (www.baazee.com) might also help (Baazee is the most successfull Indian e-bay). Similar tie-ups with music stores like Planet M and Musicworld (where most of the original games are available anyways). There might be multiplayer contests in schools and campuses (Halo style) to coincide with game release.
Another thing I wonder is how much one might make from Indian advertisers. They spend thousands and thousands on television and stadium advertising in the course of matches, so maybe one can get good financial support here if one is able to convince advertising agencies (especially those dealing with companies producing computer related stuff) of the marketing potential of the game. (Cricket matches are infact one of the topmost revenue earners for the Indian state owned channel, DD).
Hope all this was of any use. Will add any more brainwaves as and when...
Secondly, Indian buyers are very very price sensitive (...misers, some might say). Even a Rs.1000 game is not within the reach of many gamers, especially kids with no source of income of their own. If you ask me, BLC sold out version going at Rs.500 (I think) used to sell like hotcakes not too long ago (infact there are folks still looking for this, only, it seems its not available anymore). In my opinion, it can be a good idea to have a per-user license kind of a thing where 4-5 ppl are legally allowed to share a single original copy of the game, which costs around Rs.1000. They dont care for fancy boxes and thick manuals on high-gloss paper. They are equally happy with a cdrom in the cd-cover with pdf manual inside. Otherwise Rs.1000 is the most reasonable price. Games are infact selling at this price for sometime (though not as much as publishers might wish) and at the moment Rs. 1200 - 1000 is the general price range of new realeases.
Then lack of fast internet deprives Indian gamers of any online multiplayer experience and another incentive of purchasing original game goes.
Game realease in India should get proper media coverage since most of the gamers remain unaware of realeases. It might be in the form of tv and newspaper ads and some good previews and demos in gamings mags.
I might add that even the marketing of games is not very good at the moment. For one thing, the availablity of original games is far behind that of wareaz cds (remember, we have poor internet so piracy is predominantly by way of warez cds and not kaazaa et al). Games are released here months after their release elsewhere and the time-gap is filled with warez cds coming from our south-east asian neighbors. So much so that a game is available within a week of its release in Australia e.g., even though Indian release might still be in the pipeline. Tie-ups with websites like Rediff India (http://in.rediff.com), Indiatimes (www.indiatimes.com) and Baazee (www.baazee.com) might also help (Baazee is the most successfull Indian e-bay). Similar tie-ups with music stores like Planet M and Musicworld (where most of the original games are available anyways). There might be multiplayer contests in schools and campuses (Halo style) to coincide with game release.
Another thing I wonder is how much one might make from Indian advertisers. They spend thousands and thousands on television and stadium advertising in the course of matches, so maybe one can get good financial support here if one is able to convince advertising agencies (especially those dealing with companies producing computer related stuff) of the marketing potential of the game. (Cricket matches are infact one of the topmost revenue earners for the Indian state owned channel, DD).
Hope all this was of any use. Will add any more brainwaves as and when...
