Gaming gets Indian flavour

The Greek mythological battle for Pandora’s box or the military games played by the US army will now have to make way for Indian epic hero Hanuman and rustic games like “gilli danda” and “kabaddi” as the Indian console gaming market gets set for launch of locally developed games.

Indian console gaming enthusiasts, who have been trying their skills manoeuvring on alien land of Greek in the “God of War” or tried a hand on “Uncharted Territories” with alien military warriors, could now have some “desi” flavour with Sony Computer Entertainment all ready to launch games developed by Indian developers on Indian themes in the next one-and-a-half years. “So far, 100 per cent of the console games are imported,” said Sony Computer Entertainment’s Country Manager Atindriya Bose. “Though India has a strong IT infrastructure, we have not seen any Indian-developed games for the console market,” he said.

Most of the current work being done was more of an outsourcing work, he said, adding, “Roughly out of the 150-odd animation and gaming firms, an estimated 20-30 of them are involved in the outsourcing component for the console gaming segment.”

In view of the rapid growth in the Indian gaming market, with the console market having grown seven times, Sony Computer Entertainment has tied up with Indian firms to launch eight games, four of which will be out by early 2009 and the remaining four between 2009-end and early 2010, he said.