Gaming has been a booming business globally. The United States alone netted revenues over $23 billion in the last year alone, with a exponential growth expected this year. Both console and PC gaming is on the rise, and this is in-part due to initiatives by gaming corporations, including hardware and software manufacturers. However, when it comes to the Indian gaming industry, while the scene is growing, there is a lot that needs to be done.
Leading GPU manufacturer, NVIDIA, has been building a community of gamers, YouTubers, creators, and professionals in India. We had a chat with Vamsi Krishna, Head of Consumer Marketing, South Asia, India, who had more than a few insights into how gamers in India want their video game consumption, and how NVIDIA plans to deliver it.
Exponential Growth
He states an exponential growth of interest in gaming across social networks like Facebook, etc across the country and is expected to grow over 25 million by the end of the year. This growth isn’t just from the bigger tier-1 and tier-2 cities, but is seen across the top 20 cities in the countries. Since it’s not easy to individually reach every single one of these gamers, NVIDIA has started livestream all their major events on Facebook, so that their entire audience can, albeit remotely, be a part of the activity.
While gamers across the country consume global gaming content such as Rooster Teeth, PewDiePie, and more, they do yearn for more localised content created by Indians. NVIDIA India plans to change that, and has been setting up an internal broadcast studio, consisting of gamers, livestreamers, and more. NVIDIA is helping casters create international quality content for the India audience. An influencer network of this sort helps spreading awareness among gamers, bringing the community closer. One of the things Vamsi noted was that gamers were eager to consume content, they needed to be given the right kind of it.
Cafe Program
NVIDIA’s cafe program has gained immense popularity among gamers in India. Where there used to be dingy cafes running low-end systems, NVIDIA has been empowering and educating cafe owners, helping them reach a set standard, and delivering a premium experience to gamers across the country. The scale is still low right now, with only about 300 cafes in India. In comparison, China has over 145,000 cafes, with around 150-200 PCs/cafe. NVIDIA has a similar vision and scope of their ambition can already be seen in cities like Bangalore and Chennai where cafes certified by NVIDIA have become hubs for gamers to come together and share their passion.
GeForce Cup, Inter-Cafe Battles, Overwatch, & More
Another initiative by NVIDIA is the GeForce Cup. We have already witnessed it being a successful tournament model, and for the next one NVIDIA plans to amp up the stakes by holding Overwatch tournaments. They want gamers to take part in amazing gameplay experiences. The GeForce Cup will be held at 8 Platinum NVIDIA Certified Cafes (that live up to the top standards set), and hence incentivise cafe owners for their efforts by bringing in footfalls.
Apart from this there will be Inter-Cafe Battles, starting from 23rd September, and will be set across 8 cafes.
Gamer Connect
Started two years ago, Gamer Connect aims to get the brands closer to the gamers, and provide them better experiences with the latest hardware. It usually consisted of 50-60 people at a cafe. This is however set to change, as NVIDIA plans to take it a step further. There will be a bigger crowd this time around, with more hardware and games to be experienced, and more brands partner in the initiative.
Set to be held in the September-October period, in Jaipur and Mangalore, the event will also be streamed live so as to encompass a bigger audience.
The primary focus will be on Pascal products, 4K Gaming, Virtual Reality, Geforce Experience 3.0 and more.
All in all it seems like NVIDIA, has an ambitious plan for gaming in India, and gamers are in for quite the experience.
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