After the ban on Tencent’s PUBG and Krafton’s BGMI, American mobile gaming major Zynga is working on a similar shooting game which is expected to be launched next year.
In a conversation with BusinessLine, Kishore Kichili, Country Head - India and Vice-President at Zynga, said that shooting games like PUBG and real money games are the two game genres that work well in the Indian market. However, the company does not want to venture into real money gaming.
Talking about the monetisation of games, Kichili said that very few players in India spend money on Zynga games. Even globally, in any mobile game, about 95-97 per cent people are non-paying players. There is only a very small percentage who spend on games and for all the non-payers, the money is generated through advertising.
“I would say in India the percentage of non-paying gamers is probably a bit higher. Because Indians’ consumer spending habits are not like that. So we are now looking at micro-pricing — which is to say that can we offer something for ₹9 instead of ₹99,” he added.
A wholly-owned subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software, Zynga is known for developing games such as FarmVille, CSR Racing, Wizard of Oz Magic Match, and Wonka Slots, among others. Founded in 2007, Zynga is headquartered in California with locations in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Gaming market in India
Zynga India was set up in 2010 at Bengaluru, which has now evolved into the largest location for the company in terms of employee headcount — grown to 500 in the past couple of years. Zynga India is composed of game teams and central teams that work on some of Zynga’s most-popular game franchises across mobile and web. About 70 per cent of India employees are working on the games and the rest on support functions.
Commenting on the potential of the gaming market in India, Kichili said, “Pandemic has opened the doors for more people to become gamers. There are over 400 million gamers in India, which means that there’s a huge market and it’s going to be a growing market. In addition to this, the government’s push on 5G, proliferation of high-end devices, and low internet data tariffs — make it prime time for gaming to leverage all of this and become a big sector in India.”
He added that India currently might not have spend-habits like that of global gaming audiences. But it ties to how much disposable income or discretionary income gamers have today. “Younger generation that is playing right now, I’m sure they will end up paying but it is a combination of factors that is going to come into play in the next 5-10 years. I hope that’s going to put India in a stage where Indian gaming would be as big as other parts of the world,” said Kichili.