Ready, Player one: A look at India's e-sports gaming market

There are many memorable quotes from Steven Spielberg’s 2018 video game epic Ready Player One that tracks the lives of people who escape into a virtual reality universe. But, none is better than a line that encapsulates the psyche of the exploding gaming industry today: “Going outside is highly overrated.”

This not-so-underground world inhabited by monsters, wizards and anything else the human mind can conjure, has evolved into far more than just a pastime: the eSports world (as its popularly known) boasts of over 2 billion gamers globally and is expected to be worth over a billion US dollars by 2019. But the astonishing fact is that India is a now a burgeoning market for the industry, with a gamer base of 120 million users that is expected to reach 300 million in the next three years.

The rapid rise of the industry is evident with recent happenings: Nvidia, the American gaming technology giant, held GamerConnect symposiums across India; U Cypher Championship, India’s first televised esports tournament attracted massive viewership on MTV; and the sport is now  part of the Asian Games and is in the running to be included in Tokyo Olympics 2020.

For those who came in late though, it’s well past the reign of popular arcade games like Mario Go Kart and Super Contra that past generations enjoyed. Now, high-end PCs or consoles like the Xbox and PS4 are used by skilled players playing as individuals or teams to navigate the worlds of iconic franchises like Dota 2, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, League of Legends or FIFA. Multiplayer online battle arenas (MOBA) type titles are the most popular, with other preferred ones including RTS (real-time strategy) or FPS (first-person shooter)

While most play casually, there are many who train for months with their ‘clans’ (as teams are known) to prepare for tournaments, both national and international. In 2017, more than Rs 2 crore was given as prize money for competitions in India, as an increasing number of college students and young professionals recognise the platform as a viable source of income.

Even more surprising is that Chennai — a city that pales in the number of gaming cafes/ arenas when compared to other metros like Bengaluru or Mumbai -- is emerging as a modern hub for the sport.

With investors and sponsors ready to take eSports to the next level, the city’s formerly unheralded community of gamers are now fully out of their shadows and ready to arc the virtual spotlight upon them. They already rank among the top competitors in India, and it wouldn’t be a stretch to say that a Chennaiite could be lifting a medal for the country soon!

So then. Ready player one?

Checking out Arknemesis, India as well as South Asia’s biggest gaming café (yes, you read that right) at Ispahani Centre in Nungambakkam, is quite an experience in itself. Less than a year old, the stunning arena is responsible for firmly placing Chennai on the gaming map internationally. With 68 high-end PCs, PS4 Pros and 21 4K televisions, the 6,500-square feet space has become a coveted spot for pro-players all over India.

“Coming from an event management background and being a gamer myself for over 30 years, I made the decision to open Arknemesis here as I saw huge potential,” says founder Harish Suri. What compelled him was the drive to change perception and harness untapped talent in the field that had stagnated due to a lack of organisation and infrastructure.

With ties to prestigious brands in the industry, ranging from Ubisoft Entertainment to the MAGES, a game design institute in Singapore, Harish is also forming a community that brings together fans of anime, TV shows, cosplayers (people who wear costumes and fashion accessories to represent a specific character) and gamers together. “The idea is to build a platform for gamers to compete professionally and hold events with increasing prize pools that will motivate them further. See, the truth is that it’s an expensive field in India, as the import duty on the required hardware to play professionally is high. I’d say gaming is at least 30 per cent more expensive when compared to the West. That is why it’s almost impossible to stay at home and play (in countries like the US), and players here have to depend on game centres,” he explains.

With the estimated cost to set up an average gaming space anywhere between Rs 2 crore and Rs 4 crore, it doesn’t come cheap for those aspiring to enter the sector. Harish, however, says that the key is to make centres accessible for everyone.  “We strived to make Arknemesis safe and enjoyable for the entire family, outside the serious players. On a regular day, we have a footfall of around 200 and it rises upto 500 on weekends. About 40 per cent is working population (people in the age groups of 21-28 years) and 50 per cent, school and college students.” 

“After the US, China leads in eSports, and I believe in another four years, India can reach that level with the right development strategy,” Harish says, buoyant about the prospects.

Even places like Blur at Sathyam, which was one of the city’s first gaming cafes, are constantly reinventing to keep up with the rapidly-evolving interest. “We are celebrating our tenth anniversary soon and its remarkable to see how far gaming has come. What is really popular now is the genre of ‘battle royale’ (that blends survival, exploration along with last-man-standing gameplay) with games like PUBG and Fortnite,” says Titus Premkiran, manager at Blur.

With VR (virtual reality) gaming touted as the future, they recently launched Virtuix Omni, a 360-degree treadmill simulator and VR game which has proven to be a big hit. “From killing zombies to swimming under water, anything is possible by just strapping on a VR headset,” he smiles. The apparatus takes users into the game itself – the closest one can get towards living a second life – and blurs the lines between real and fantasy. Chennai is also home to Playtonia, a company that is making fast strides in the community, as it aspires to be the one-stop destination for eSports in India. Started in December 2016 by Abhijit Pattanaik and Sanupam Samantray, the company’s claim to fame is building a streaming platform for online high-on-graphic games that doesn’t suffer from latency or lag.

“We host servers on our website that lets players from India as well as abroad compete at the highest level. Apart from that, we also use our tech to hold massive gaming events, for content creation and production. The aim is to take gaming to the tier-3 and tier-4 cities in India now, and we targeted 16 of them already,” says Manickam Kailaimurugan, head of marketing at Playtonia.

The company has big plans for the future too. “Esports is not just about gaming, it creates involvement of various expertise and industries. We aim to create 1,00,000 job opportunities in India directly or indirectly for next generation in the next five years and leverage eSports towards skill development for any individual. We are also engineering eSports and VR deeply to create a unique approach towards teaching basics of life and entertainment to special children, kids with autism and adults as well,” he adds.

We have a social life too, say gaming professionals

It’s not easy being a gamer. Constant scrutiny from society, family members asking when a ‘real job’ will happen, and friends forwarding ‘gaming addiction’ reports all the time. But for those who have passed the stages of being a casual gamer dabbling in the experience for fun every few days, these virtual worlds are their reality.

Twenty-six-year-old Mansoor Ahmed from Chennai (better known by his online persona ‘Nabu’) is the captain of Team Arknemesis, India’s first fully sponsored team for Overwatch, a team-based multiplayer game that requires weeks of practise and coordination with other players of the clan to perfect. A full-time gamer today, Mansoor earns a salary just like any other corporate employee, apart from receiving a percentage of the team’s prize money at tournaments. “My parents were pretty understanding after I graduated college and got my degree. There are plenty of misconceptions associated with being a gaming professional, and it’s not like we spend 24 hours a day cooped up in front of our computer screens. We set times for training and practise, anywhere between six and eight hours, and make it a point to step out the rest of the time,” he says. Sponsored by the Republic of Gamers and Corsair, the team has together for almost two years now, which is the biggest challenge for gamers, explains Mansoor. “Roster swapping occurs often or some stop playing which seriously hinders progress.” 

From the comfort of their rooms, gamers play against competitors across the world every day. But he says there is no chance for an addiction to form. “We all know our limits and make sure we switch off our screens the minute we feel there’s an overdose. Problems occur only if someone has an addictive trait in their personality, but that doesn’t happen to gaming alone.”

Meanwhile, though the field is largely male-dominated, there are plenty of girls making a mark on their own – showing up the boys at their own game. One such youngster is 20-year-old Varshini Venkat, a final year student at ICAT Design & Media College in Chennai. Going by the online avatar ‘ZaZa Warrior’, Varshini says it might take more time to break the stereotype that girls can’t play video games, but she’s certainly up for it. “I play most of the multiplayer games with my clan, and its great fun. I interact with players across the world, and because I’m a girl, there’s an increased level of interest from them,” she grins. Varshini ‘streams’ her playing sessions on platforms like Twitch, which means going live on the webcam as she is playing, and thousands of viewers tune in to watch her. “This is a fantastic way for the gaming community to get closer. Most of the time, I get friendly banter from the boys and I wreck them in the game. But there are creeps out there too, who I mostly ignore.” 

How big is esports in Asia?

eSports will be a demonstration sport in Asian Games-2018, 

Jakarta (Indonesia) and could become a medal sport in Asian  Games 2022, Hangzhou (China) 

The income from eSports is not limited to merely playing as gamers can earn through content creation and as trainers and consultants 

Top eSports competitions seeing participation from Indians are ESL India Premiership, Indian Gaming League, GameGod Games Arena and Taiwan Excellence Gaming Cup  

Rs 15,000—25,000 a month – What professional  gamers could earn through eSports competitions

July 21: Prominent figureheads from the gaming industry attended an ‘eSports forum’ hosted by the International Olympic Committee

Recently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced that gaming would be classified as a mental health condition in its 11th International Classification of Diseases (ICD) due to be published this year. The draft document describes ‘gaming addiction’ as a pattern of recurring and persistent gaming habit that takes precedence over other life interests. The draft states that the pattern should be observed for over a period of 12 months for diagnosis, but the time frame can be shortened if the symptoms are severe. The various symptoms include - having impaired control over gaming habit in terms of duration, frequency and intensity, increased priority for gaming and continued gaming despite negative effects.