Following the ban on Tencent’s PUBG and Krafton’s BGMI, American mobile gaming giant Zynga is developing a comparable shooting game that will likely be released in 2023. According to Kishore Kichili, Country Head for India and Vice-President at Zynga, the two gaming genres that do well in the Indian market are shooting games like PUBG and real money games. The enterprise, however, is unwilling to enter the real-money gambling market.
Kichili claimed that very few Indian users spend money on Zynga games when discussing the monetization of games. 95–97% of gamers in any mobile game, even globally, are non-paying users. Only a very small portion of people actually pay for games, and for everyone else, revenue is obtained through advertising and promotions.
“I would say in India, the percentage of non-paying gamers is probably a bit higher. Because Indians’ consumer spending habits are not like that. So we are now looking at micro-pricing — which is to say that can we offer something for ₹9 instead of ₹99,” Kichili was quoted by The Hindu Business Line.
Zynga, a fully-owned division of Take-Two Interactive Software, is renowned for creating games like Wonka Slots, Wizard of Oz Magic Match, CSR Racing, and FarmVille, and many others. With offices across North America, Europe, and Asia, Zynga was founded in 2007 and has a Californian headquarters.
Zynga India was founded in Bengaluru in 2010, and during the past two years, it has expanded to 500 employees, making it the company’s largest site in terms of workforce. The game departments and central departments working on some of Zynga’s most well-known mobile and web game brands make up Zynga India. In India, 70% of the employees work in the games team, while others work on support functions.
“Pandemic has opened the doors for more people to become gamers. There are over 400 million gamers in India, which means that there’s a huge market, and it’s going to be a growing market. In addition to this, the government’s push on 5G, the proliferation of high-end devices, and low internet data tariffs — make it prime time for gaming to leverage all of this and become a big sector in India,” Kichili added.
Regarding the potential of the Indian gaming sector, Kichili opined that the country’s consumers may not yet have the same spending patterns as other countries’ gamers. However, it is related to how much gamers nowadays have in terms of discretionary or disposable cash.
“Younger generation that is playing right now, I’m sure they will end up paying but it is a combination of factors that is going to come into play in the next 5-10 years. I hope that’s going to put India in a stage where Indian gaming would be as big as other parts of the world,” Kichili concluded.