The biggest hindrance is very high tariffs on consoles

It has been close to a year since Xbox 360 was launched in
India, how has the response been so far?

The launch of Xbox 360 has really excited the gaming market in India. And as
the gaming fever spreads the going will only get better.

What is the current state of the gaming market in India?

It is right now at the cusp, waiting to explode. Overall, we see a lot of
action on that front, since we have a large youth populations. The awareness for
gaming is spreading fast; take the case of online games like Zapak.com, etc. The
biggest hindrance for spread of gaming is the imposition of very high import
tariffs (over 40%) on the consoles, making them quite expensive.

Considering the price of consoles, dont you think Xbox 360 is
elitist?

No, certainly not. Entertainment is a universal thing and is not dependent
on things like money, etc. And the reason that these consoles cost so much is
due to high import tariffs, that is really hurting the market.

Why are there lesser number of India specific games?

It is the chicken and the egg story, as the market develops in India, you
will have more and more India centric games that will be available. There needs
to be a viable market for the studios to invest in. It is changing though, we
had released Yuvraj Singh International Cricket 2007 sometime back and it was a
big hit. We are selling some sixty-five international titles in India.

Do you agree that there has been a dip of sorts in the
promotions?

I would not agree to that, we still have a strong momentum going on with the
Xbox 360. Go to any big retail brand and you are bound to see an Xbox 360. We
have over a 1,000 demo points in India. We have also tied up with Kelloggs and
Sprite for promotions.

Shaswat Chaturvedi


maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in