Competitive pricing
Vendors like Milestone are also leading the drive to make game prices more competitive and affordable.
This is done by means of purchasing older catalogues from global developers, which are 2-3 years old. Reasons Sharma, “This ensures that it is not too old and since it is already back-dated for the Western countries it is also priced cheaper.” Milestone has brought the prices down from a level of Rs 1,500 to somewhere in the range of Rs 299 and Rs 399.
It has just released Quake at Rs 999, which earlier cost Rs 3,000 and Sharma reveals that the company will soon release Quake Ultimate which includes Quake I, II and III at only Rs 999.
Piracy of games is rampant in India, with titles selling for as little as Rs 125 barely a week after their international release.
It is estimated that for every one unit of legitimate software there are over 10 units of pirated products sold. In value terms, the piracy market could be as high as two to three times that of the legit market. Distributors like Milestone are attempting to reduce losses by making games more affordable. This is vital, because as Sharma admits, distributors are getting hit more by consumer-level piracy.
The price difference is also slowly eroding. With the release of customized budget packs, which feature three to six popular games (albeit slightly older versions) for less than Rs 1,500, the value proposition for purchasing legal gaming software suddenly makes a lot of sense.
And while the relatively small size of the Indian market makes it unattractive to most game publishers, some like Electronic Arts are more proactive. This could be because EA Sports (a brand of EA) is the top publisher of interactive sports content and sports as a genre is very popular in India.
Milestone has been trying to convince the publishers it is associated with, that India could grow to be a volume-driven market, though per-unit values may be lower.
Vendors like Milestone are also leading the drive to make game prices more competitive and affordable.
This is done by means of purchasing older catalogues from global developers, which are 2-3 years old. Reasons Sharma, “This ensures that it is not too old and since it is already back-dated for the Western countries it is also priced cheaper.” Milestone has brought the prices down from a level of Rs 1,500 to somewhere in the range of Rs 299 and Rs 399.
It has just released Quake at Rs 999, which earlier cost Rs 3,000 and Sharma reveals that the company will soon release Quake Ultimate which includes Quake I, II and III at only Rs 999.
Piracy of games is rampant in India, with titles selling for as little as Rs 125 barely a week after their international release.
It is estimated that for every one unit of legitimate software there are over 10 units of pirated products sold. In value terms, the piracy market could be as high as two to three times that of the legit market. Distributors like Milestone are attempting to reduce losses by making games more affordable. This is vital, because as Sharma admits, distributors are getting hit more by consumer-level piracy.
The price difference is also slowly eroding. With the release of customized budget packs, which feature three to six popular games (albeit slightly older versions) for less than Rs 1,500, the value proposition for purchasing legal gaming software suddenly makes a lot of sense.
And while the relatively small size of the Indian market makes it unattractive to most game publishers, some like Electronic Arts are more proactive. This could be because EA Sports (a brand of EA) is the top publisher of interactive sports content and sports as a genre is very popular in India.
Milestone has been trying to convince the publishers it is associated with, that India could grow to be a volume-driven market, though per-unit values may be lower.