Video games in India is an emerging market. With a turnover of 30 million dollars in 2006, the video game sector is still underdeveloped compared to other Asian countries such as China and South Korea. However, many video game companies are beginning to invest, and India could become an important market for this sector.
With a piracy rate of software and consoles of over 80% and a penetration rate of PC still low, India's video game market has long lagged behind the rest of World, publishers and distributors of video games struggling to find their place. This delay is also explained by the fact that the country has traditionally never had a real culture of gambling. However, this situation is changing due to the increase in the average income of Indians and the increase in Interest in Internet and entertainment.
Like China and South Korea, India is experiencing strong growth in online gaming. With between 35 and 50 million Internet users, the country is attracting interest from the online video game industry, which is difficult to hack. In October 2005, Level Up! Games was the first to distribute a massively multiplayer online game in India with "Ragnarok Online" and was soon followed by others Companies like Syfy with the game A3 . The latter are South Korean games whose content has been adapted in order to please the people of the country. However, these games were only modestly successful, with about 10000 in 2006. As investments continue to rise, however, the video game market is expected to grow rapidly in India.
One of the factors driving the growth of the video game market is its large number of cybercafés. The country has indeed more than 100,000 in 2006, 40% of which are used to play online. Video games play a crucial role in their development by attracting and retaining customers and, conversely, cybercafes contribute to the promotion of video games.