Gaming on the move, a hit with Mumbaikars

From mythology to Bollywood, mobile gaming has a captive audience among young Mumbaikars

Your eyes are fixed on the little digital screen of your mobile phone, while your thumb runs around the keypad pushing the small buttons. You’re oblivious to the noise around you, as you concentrate on beating your previous score. Whether it’s a game as simple as Snake, or as convoluted as Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, your attention never wavers.

For the last six years, the mobile gaming industry in India has seen tremendous growth. In fact, a recent Nielsen survey found that gaming websites account for 38 per cent of traffic from Indian mobile Internet users.

The penetration of mobile phones is highest among people between the ages of 20 and 30. Nitish Mittersain, CEO of the mobile gaming company, Nazara Technologies, says, “Almost everyone owns a mobile phone today; they are more accessible than PCs or other gaming devices, so mobile gaming is here to stay.”

While designing a game, game developers keep in mind three things: Gender, region and the kind of phones available in that region. In a small town, for instance, games that require complicated moves aren’t as popular as car racing, and so on. Developers also keep in mind the sound quality, handset model, and keypad functions of
different mobile phones.

But for Mumbaikars, games that allow them to fight, jump and contemplate different moves for the hours that they spend travelling to work, are popular. With the cost of most games ranging from R30 to Rs150, there’s something for everyone. Research has shown that while women enjoy strategy games like Sudoku or Snake, men prefer racing and action-based games.

Mohit Sureka, founder of Spiel Studios, a global game development and Game Process Outsourcing (GPO) studio, that supplies games to operators like BPL, Airtel and Vodafone, says, “Mobile gaming is a popular trend in Mumbai mainly because people here are constantly on the move, so this becomes a fascinating alternative to while away the time.”

Even the characters in the games have changed. A little less than two years ago, the
Bollywood brigade made a proud appearance on mobile screens, much to the delight of gamers. In 2006, game developer, Jump Games, introduced a game based on music composer, Bappi Lahiri. Called Bappi Da Disco King, gamers could get Bappi Lahiri to ‘zap’ goons with his electric guitar and retrieve his stolen jewellery from them. The game went on to win the ‘Best Mobile game of the Year 2007’ at the FICCI BAF Awards.

Salil Bhargava, the CEO of Jump Games, says, “We try and create sticky content that can keep users engaged as they are now maturing with regards to what they want to play as opposed to simply accepting what is served to them.” So, innovative games like those based on the Ramayana, and strategic and story-based games are becoming increasingly popular.

However, what seems to have caught the fancy of most mobile gamers in the city is the role-playing game. Spiel recently launched a game called, Rockstar, where you can live the life of a rock star, shuttling between concerts, dressing up and so on. Such games, says Mohit, work better on phones like the iPhone, as you have the accelerometer function embedded in it. And the tilts and touch-screen make it an altogether different experience.

But according to Veerchand Bothra, CEO of Ravience digital, a digital media technology provider, even though a lot of Bollywood-studded games have entered the market, Mumbaikars still prefer games with simple commands. So the ubiquitous Chess, Crossword and Snake still remain favourites.

“Mobile gaming has a long way to go in India mainly due to technology constraints, but game providers are constantly trying to innovate and catch current trends,” he says.