Can a Career in Gaming Ever Become Mainstream?

Gaming has become a rapidly growing industry in India, and holds a lot of potential for those who are passionate about gaming. The gaming industry in India has seen a significant rise in recent years due to the growing number of gamers and the increasing popularity of esports. The Government of India recently also recognised esports as a sport. However, can a career in gaming is something students can consider? Will it ever become mainstream like a career in healthcare or software? Girish Menon, Chief Strategy Officer, JetSynthesys says that it “absolutely” can.

Menon spoke to Dataquest along the sidelines of the India Gaming Show held in Pragati Maidan. The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), supported by the Indian Digital Gaming Society (IDGS) recently hosted the latest edition of India Gaming Show (IGS) 2023, with JetSynthesys as the event sponsor. The three-day conference and exhibition witnessed several panels and tournaments, that centred around the 'Future of Gaming in India' and how all stakeholders can unlock the potential that the sector holds.

Menon spoke to Dataquest about a range os topics such as:

• How the gaming industry is doing in India.
• The prospects of a career in gaming becoming mainstream.
• The impact of 5G and other new age technologies such as meta verse on gaming.
• Technology trends that we can expect in the gaming industry.

“The gaming industry has witnessed a very phenomenal growth in the last one and a half years in India. While today there are about 400 million gamers in India, that number is likely to increase to 600 to 700 million in another 2 to 3 years. Gaming industry is significantly growing at scale, and India is becoming one of the largest gaming markets in the world over time,” said Menon. 

Menon also went on to add that gaming as an industry was always a great career option for those who were technology minded or creatively minded, and these opportunities will now only increase. “There is now a fundamental change on the gamers’ side along with the developer community. Playing games has now become a profession. Now, everyone who is playing games  has realised that they can make it a career. When I say career it could be as a gamer, content creator or influencer. Esports has now been recognised as a sport by the Government of India, and has become a medal event at the Common Wealth, Asian Games and someday may be even in the Olympics. People have now realised that a child playing games may not be wasting time but there maybe a profession or a path they could walk towards,” he added.