While presenting the Union Budget 2022 this week, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharam announced plans to create an Animation, Visual Effects, Games and Comics (AVGC) force. She noted that the aim is to “propose ways to realize” job creation and “build domestic capacity” to meet growing demand in India and globally. Stakeholders have welcomed the move and look forward to seeing the government’s involvement in developing the domestic AVGC sector.
Sitharaman in her over an hour and a half Budget The speech emphasized that this sector has great potential for recruiting young people in the country.
Following the Budget speech, Prime Minister Narendra Modi highlighted the possibilities of promoting animation and games in the country while addressing his party staff through a virtual meetup.
Prime Minister Modi said that AVGC area is expected to reach Rs. 3 lakh crore in the next two years as estimated.
“Now the problem is that we cannot prevent our children from playing family games,” he stressed. “But, will they only play games developed outside of India or will India do something on its own? Hence, to give opportunities for our country’s talents to innovate – huge potential for ‘Creativity in India and Branding in India’. ”
Stakeholders make moves to promote animation and games actively. However, this is not the first time we have seen the government showing interest in the AVGC sector. In fact, it announced the plan forming an AVGC Center of Excellence (CoE) in partnership with Bombay Institute of India. The Karnataka State Government also launched AVGC CoE in Bengaluru last month.
Roby John, Co-Founder and CEO at Pune .-based game development company SuperGamingsaid that the announcement of the creation of a task force dedicated to promoting cartoons and games is a legit mark for the domestic gaming industry.
“Video games, unlike software, are a crossroads of disciplines – art, design, technology and commerce, and should be treated differently,” says John.
However, he mentioned that while the task force promoting the AVGC is a step in the right direction, it will be interesting to see how the development plan will be carried out to do justice to the gaming medium. play game.
SuperGaming is a well known mobile game company in India and the developer behind the popular title MaskGunis said to have surpassed 60 million downloads.
Similar to John, Krafton’s Head of India Sean Hyunil Sohn welcomed the steps taken to establish the promotion task force.
“This move will certainly go towards fostering local innovation, boosting employment and job creation, and creating new opportunities to upskill talent, such as gaming like a career,” he said, adding that 2022 will be a great year for the Indian gaming ecosystem.
Krafton global popularity for PUBG franchise, although the Korean company last year rescue Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI) as the Indian avatar of PUBG Mobile – monitor original title ban by the government.
Divya Sengupta, Artistic Director of Mumbai-based game studio Lost Ferry Interactive, notes that while the creation of the task force is a welcome announcement, the new agency hopes to consider setting up excellent institutes to connect the game of skill and create incentives for foreign publishers to set up domestic studios.
“India with its rich history, diversity and artistic talent has a lot of stories to tell through video games and comics, but they need to be packaged to meet global standards. Right now, we’re hampered by a huge skill gap,” she pointed out.
Lost Ferry Interactive is currently developing the third-person action-adventure game Paperplanes that will be available on PC and consoles. The studio also produces comics and designs art.
Gaming is already considered the choice of job seekers in the country. A survey conducted by HP India last year, to which 1,500 people aged 15–40 responded, showed that more than 90 percent of respondents considers gaming as a viable career option.
Manish Agarwal, CEO of Mumbai-based mobile gaming and entertainment company Nazara Technologiesagrees with the government’s goal and says the task force will facilitate youth employment.
“India currently accounts for about 10% of the global AVGC market and has the potential to reach 20–25% by 2027,” he said.
Nazara Technologies is claimed to have over 100 million monthly active users and its network includes e-sports company Nodwin Gaming as well as eSports-focused online publishing Sportskeeda.
“The Indian gaming scene offers a great opportunity to build games for Indian and global players. Therefore, the idea of looking inside to build domestic capacity to serve our market and global demand is a good move to promote talent and content creation,” said Vishal Gondal, The founder of the company that develops and publishes the game said. Game nCore.
The company is headquartered in Bengaluru achieve eyeball to release FAU-WOOD just a few days after the ban of PUBG Mobile in the country in 2020.
Aside from game studios and companies, those in the emerging e-sports space are appreciating the government task force’s plan.
Sai Srinivas, Co -Founder and CEO of Bengaluru is based Mobile Premier League (MPL).
Ishaan Arya, Co-Founder of Esports Club of Bengaluru, believes the government’s decision is an encouraging sign for the gaming industry.
“Development is an area with a lot of potential in India and will certainly benefit from efforts like this,” he said. “With this, however, I would also urge decision-makers to clearly understand and define the difference between gaming/esports; card games/skill games; fantasy sports and gambling. “
He added that all the regular decision-makers, key industry leaders and even the media tend to blur the lines between these very distinct spaces under one broad umbrella. big of video games, online games, video games or just call everything a game. and e-sports.
“This makes it very difficult for businesses to understand and comply with applicable laws and confuses a large segment of potential customers,” says Arya.
Romeo Misao, Marketing Manager for India and South Asia at Dubai-based e-sports company Galaxy Racer, says that the gaming industry has the potential to contribute higher to the country’s GDP and generate many job opportunities.
“While forming a task force would be a huge motivator, it is equally essential to ensure continued innovation, ecosystem-wide collaboration, and a balanced allocation of funds, and plans to follow the right channels to ensure sustainable growth for the sector,” said Misao.
Organizations that offer non-formal courses in animation and gaming say the government’s plan to promote AVGC creates promising futures for current and new students.
“The announcement of the AVGC promotion task force reinforces our voice that we have raised in the industry,” said Anil Pant, CEO and CEO of vocational training provider Aptech. for years.
Mumbai-based Aptech owns Arena Animation and MAAC are two well-known academies for animation and game courses in the country.
“The AVGC sector has the potential to create 75,000-1,20,000 jobs over the next five years, possibly more as many states are actively promoting AVGC,” Pant said.
Indian Deloitte Partnerships and Media and Entertainment industry leader Jehil Thakkar noted that the establishment of the AVGC promotion task force will help India achieve its potential of 200,000 jobs.
“This [AVGC] are key skills to grow the metaverse and India is poised to take advantage of this ecosystem,” he said.
Saurabh Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO of social gaming platform Tamasha Live also noted that upskilling professionals in the AVGC field will ultimately benefit the growth of the metaverse and will allows India to compete on a global level.
A report by consulting firm RedSeer in November expected that the domestic games market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 30% to reach $7 billion (approximately Rs 52,300) in the next five years.
Girish Menon, Partner and Head of Media and Entertainment at KPMG in India, said that the establishment of the AVGC task force would help the country address both domestic and global needs.
In June of last year, KPMG speak that the game user base in India will grow from 433 million to 657 million in fiscal year 2025. The size of the games market in the country is also forecast to grow to the level of Rs. 29,000 crore by 2025 from Rs. 13,600 crore in fiscal year 2021.
