"For the Indian consumer, Games on Demand will be like Cable TV, maximum content at least possible cost"

One of the leading publishers of mobile content globally, Indiagames has been setting precedents right since its inception. The latest product offering from this trend setting company is Games on Demand (GoD) which it has initially launched on Airtel Broadband.

According to the company, this service is going to revolutionize the way Games are consumed in the country.

Animation Xpress.com Editor Anand Gurnani, met up with Indiagames' Sr Vice President - Corporate and Business Development Samir Bangara, for an interview at the company's Chembur Headquarters.

The first of the two part interview focuses solely on the Games on Demand service while part two deals with topics like the corporate structure at Indiagames, the Internationally recommended best practices that the company follows and the other long term initiatives that the company is taking to consolidate its position…

Following are excerpts from Part One

What have been the significant initiatives and developments at Indiagames recently?
Amongst the recent developments and initiatives at Indiagames, the most significant one has been GoD (Games on Demand) which has initially been launched on Airtel Broadband. We have worked for months to collaborate with a number of players across the ecosystem to come up with this offering, which is nothing short of revolutionary. For the Indian consumer, Games on Demand will be like Cable TV, maximum content at least possible cost. By just paying a monthly fee of Rs 199, the consumer can now have access to a portfolio of 300 top tier PC game titles valued at Rs 300,000. What's more is that we will refresh and update the games portfolio every month

What's the mechanism? How does it work?
A broadband (currently only Airtel Broadband) consumer can simply subscribe to this service by paying a monthly fee of Rs 199/-. S/he will be provided a login and password using which s/he can access the game deck. The consumer can simply choose any game/s and download to their hard drive. That's where broadband is necessary as PC games can be anywhere from 2 Megs to 3 GB or more. Once the game rests on the consumer's hard drive, s/he can start playing by accessing our server and using the login and password purely for authentication. Thus there is no latency issue while playing the game. Everything is DRM protected which means that if a consumer discontinues the subscription, s/he would not be able to play the game even if it resided on his hard disk.

What's the addressable market? How do you plan to maximize reach?
Broadly the addressable market is all internet users in the country. But our primary focus is the broadband users, as downloading games is a data intensive exercise. Currently there are 1.7 million broadband users (home) in the country. We have initially launched this in collaboration with Airtel Broadband and will soon be launching it with most of the ISPs, Telecom Operators as well as Cable players who are into broadband. Thanks to the partnerships we have built and are in the process of building, within a few months time we shall be available to at least 75% of the broadband market. That's something in the range of 1.25 million homes and SOHOs.

Amongst these 1.25 million broadband users what conversion rate do you estimate to achieve?
Some of the targets that we are hearing in discussions with our operators is 10% penetration. We have optimistic estimates and realistic estimates. Similar services internationally have achieved between 7% to 14% penetration. If we end up somewhere in the 7% penetration range we would have done well. We are cognizant of the fact that the gaming market in India is still in its infancy. We are seeding the market and the full scale of this service will be visible in 18 to 24 months. It's like the mobile telephone market back in'96 - waiting to explode. Research suggests that in 2010 there will be somewhere in the region of 20 -25 million broadband connections. The operators, and other ISPs that we are engaged with will continue to command a lions share of this market which we will have access to. At a later date we have the capability of making this ISP and Operator agnostic also and will do what is best for the consumer and the growth of market as things pan out.

Our focus is to offer the best possible package to the consumer and we have worked laboriously to procure and add all the ingredients that we think are necessary to achieve this end.

Please elaborate?
The Indian market is well known for its price sensitivity. We believe this is the most competitively priced service for games subscription in the world. However that's not all. One very significant consumer focused feature for GoD is the Zero Data Download Charge. Generally a basic broadband package that comes for Rs 399/ has a data download cap of 400 to 600 MB and a consumer of this package would be additionally charged for all data download in excess of the cap. But with GoD, the consumer can download even a three Giga byte game and not have to pay any additional data download charges. Its an 'All you can eat, no hidden costs' Rs. 199 a month package...

Then there are other things like for instance, the DRM. We had an option of developing our own DRM solution but we opted for licensing one of the best existing and proven solutions in the world, for Games on Demand. Also to ensure that the consumer has the best download experience our servers are actually embedded in the data centers of the ISPs thus providing the shortest possible route to download.

Finally and perhaps as critical as the pricing is the content on the system. We have leveraged our years of experience in the games space to reach out to the some of the best game publishers in the world for providing their content on the platform. Microsoft, Atari, Codemasters and Playfirst are just some of the well known publishers that are already present on the service with more coming everyday!

Wouldn't game publishers sales volumes be affected?
80% of the Indian games market is pirated so there is no question of volumes being adversely affected. In fact this is going to emerge as the most effective way in which publishers can monetize their gaming content in the Indian market. Just like this is going to be the most cost effective and legal way for consumers to consume games in the country.

You also did mention about GoD boosting broadband penetration in the country…
Definitely! The product offering at this price point will be a significant boost to broadband penetration in the country.. With GoD broadband providers have a compelling product to offer to consumers with a real broadband value proposition. Faster Email/browsing and other commoditized services don't seem to have caught consumer fancy to invest in broadband. .. We are training the sales forces of these broadband providers to drive home the value proposition

Our service will also address Cyber Cafes and dial up subscribers - there will be something for everyone.

There are other players too who are working on similar services…
That's fantastic for the market. The market is so small today that we are excited by the interest that other providers are showing in it - the net impact can only be positive for adoption of a games culture. We have some unique value propositions and experience which will clearly differentiate our service. Games is our DNA. This is less about marketing muscle and more about understanding the gaming psyche. Games is our core business and we are creating the market.