Day 2 at MG2005 began with a classic debate, ‘Quality vs Quantity’.
The current lot of games on the Indian carrier game decks indicate at an inclination towards quantity, interestingly the session had all the panelists rooting for quality.
“It’s not a case of quality vs quantity. One doesn’t need to compromise on either of the two” quipped Nazara Technologies CEO Nitish Mittarsen.
Broadly games can be judged on two criteria, production and game play. While production values are a generic indicator to quality, defining a good game play is a tricky proposition, especially for new markets like India.
“User experience has to be right. You can’t thrust a tough game, howsoever great it is at an Indian consumer today, because most of them are not only trying mobile gaming but gaming itself for the first time” remarked Dhruva CEO Rajesh Rao
I play’s Krishna Gidwani stressed that,” Quality is often times the make or break for many if not all of our consumers, especially in the case of first timers. There is significant revenue to be generated from the long tail but quality should not be compromised on. Simple is ok but simplicity is not”
Who should do the final QA?
For a carrier, games are a small part of VAS (Value added services) and are a tiny blimp on the carrier’s radar of focus areas. For the developers, the games are the be all and end all.
While QA and better games mean better ARPU for Carriers and additional sales for handset mfgs, it is REVENUE for the game developer and publisher.
Not much of a debate on who is the primary beneficiary of QA exercises, but discussion at MG2005 there was
Small Device Technologies’ Dikshant Dave opined, “Coming from a porting and QA house, what we observe is that the operators & carriers’ pressure on developers to churn out new games is very high”
“Carriers have to take the initiative of maintaining quality standards” he added.
Airtel live Chief Yatin Pahwa retorted “I am glad that we are talking the same language out here, that of quality. Many of our partners are pumping in games without proper QA. But it is impossible for us to do the checks, we are keen to see fewer games but high quality games”
Branded Games and quality
‘Branded games’ the term was an oft repeated one at MG2005. While a branded game would actually mean games either endorsed by or built around brands, the term when used at MG2005 by most of the speakers was very broadly used to address even generic games like Tetris as well as for other games built around successful entertainment properties like TDAT.
Branded games get the pull and push from the operators because most of the games that have been successful have been branded games. Not surprising since brands already have a recall. It is also easier to attract a new non gamer who is casually trying gaming with a brand as compared to an unknown game.
However there is a catch to it.
The brand may pull a new casual gamer, but eventually the quality of the game decides the consumer’s inclination towards gaming.
In a bid to get more consumers to try games, the speed at which games are woven and published around brands sometimes makes the games repetitive. This is also termed as re skinning.
“By & large the quality of branded games in India has been appalling” remarked Rajesh Rao.
Dikshant stated that”Whether or not we accept it, the fact is that most of the games and game concepts in current games (traditional & wireless), are simply re skinned and repackaged”
Nitish Mittarsen, CEO of Nazara technologies which holds rights to Sachin Tendulkar for mobile games agreed, saying, “The first phase was when developers simply re-skinned ready games and brands. These games were not created from ground up. Our Sachin game will have a preference automatically over other Cricket games thanks to be being based on Sachin. But on our part we need to create a good game and see to it that it uses all of Sachin’s strengths as a player and enhances the game experience”
Gist
As the session drew to a close, the gist was that ‘quality is essential’ and the onus for QA is on the developer and not the carrier. Also India has great execution skills and development skills but the talent for developing great ideas and game play concepts needs to be nurtured.