Circa November 2007: An elated 21-year-old Arun Kanekar became a hero to his friends after he brought home the Sony Playstation 3 for a whopping Rs 39,990. He had waited for long to graduate from his PS2 and had finally landed himself an 80GB PS3.
Cut to the present. Kanekar cannot conceal his disappointment after Sony announced that the new PS3 Slim will be available for a mere Rs 19,990 and that, too, with 120GB space. He laments: "It is so well-designed and has much more space than mine."
Mind you, Kanekar is not the only one to be dismayed. He is just one of the millions who failed to anticipate the giant strides companies have made in the Indian gaming console market.
Of course, if you take into account the changes this segment has seen in recent times, you will realise that the big boys -- Sony and Microsoft, along with Nintendo -- have not had their way entirely. True, they have managed to catch the fancy of the Indian gamer, but not on their own terms. Read on to understand what cards Indian gamers were dealt with in 2009.
Down it goes
When it comes to pricing of consoles, Indian gamers have never had it so good. Be it Sony's Playstation, Microsoft's Xbox or Nintendo's Wii, prices have steadily declined in the last 12 months. Arun S Ravi, an avid gamer who has represented India at the World Cyber Games, says: "There are many options available for Indian consumers who always seek value-for-money in every purchase."
Value-for-money is a term that has never been associated with the gaming industry. But gamers' preferences have changed along with the growth in the Indian market. Even the Microsoft Xbox, which used to have a couple of variants, is now focusing on building volumes with its entry-level Xbox Arcade.
The Arcade is priced at Rs 16,990 and is a slim version of the good old Xbox 360 that was launched at Rs 19,990. Older generation consoles have shed prices too. The price of PS3's predecessor, the Sony Playstation 2, has declined to Rs 5,990.
"At this price, the Sony PS2 is still one of the best consoles to get started with," feels Farhan Azam, a game tester with a leading game developer.
In the last couple of months, even Nintendo has entered the price war, slashing its Wii console's price to Rs 9,600.
As far as options and pricing go, gamers have never had it so good.
"Gone are the days when you had to fork out Rs 20,000 to upgrade from a PS2," says Ravi. Predictably, handheld gaming devices have seen a steady deterioration in their retail prices. Sony reduced the price of its Playstation Portable by Rs 1,000 to about Rs 9,000 and others, like Nintendo's Game Boy, are priced from Rs 6,000 onwards.
"I wasn't expecting a price cut, but it is a welcome surprise," says 19-year-old Kyle Crasto, who is all set to bring home a gaming console this Christmas.
Bundles of joy
In addition to slashing prices, gaming companies have decided to throw in a few freebies too. The objective may be to tackle piracy, which is the biggest obstacle in the gaming industry's growth path. But bundling free games with consoles has gone down extremely well with gamers.
For example, if you purchase a PS3 Slim, you get to walk away with two free game titles -- GranTurismo5 Prologue and Uncharted: Drake's Fortune. The Xbox Arcade has five free games, including the likes of Uno and Pac-man (championship edition).
On every Nintendo Wii's purchase, you get a nunchuk-controller (for action games) and the Wii sports software. Nintendo hopes the change will entice more consumers to try the Wii gaming experience, along with the release of new titles like the much-anticipated 'Wii Fit Plus'.
Normally, these game titles are priced between Rs 999-Rs 1,299. So, the user ends up saving about Rs 3,000 with every console. "It's a nice incentive for users. We have seen sales go up," says a Sony dealer in Gurgaon.
Titles galore
If you are one of those who believe that kids will be better off if they had something more than just war and action games on their consoles, then Sony has a solution for you.
It offers Hanuman, as well as Desi Adda, where gamers can play games in Hindi, Tamil and Punjabi. These games have been developed by Indian game developers and, priced at just Rs 499, are being targeted at first-time and casual gamers.
In addition to this, Sony has entered the infotainment genre with two titles focusing on quizzes based on subjects like History, Mathematics, Arts and Entertainment, among others.
These are targeted at students from standards V to X. Students from medical and engineering backgrounds can pick up Sony's latest Medical & Engineering Joint Entrance Quiz title for Rs 499 and get an interactive quiz-based game to help them crack their examinations.
As far as other titles are concerned, there has been no significant change in pricing. All new titles are available from Rs 1,299 onwards, even Rs 2,999. Gamers like Kanekar believe this is one area where gaming companies could work on to make gaming more accessible.
"Let's face it -- not many people would be willing to pay upwards of Rs 1,000 for all games," he concludes. The way things are going, price cuts in gaming titles might just be the next thing to accelerate growth in 2010. At least that will be some solace for Kanekar
