When pocket monster game series Pokemon debuted on television screens worldwide nearly a decade ago, it created , arguably, the biggest amalgamation of the global animation and gaming industries. It brought together animators, illustrators and niche gamers, catapulting Japan's already successful gaming industry into the stratosphere.
The Indian gaming and animation industry is now seeking its own Pokemon moment that will be the trigger for domestic animators, illustrators and gaming wizards to collaborate and build a multi-billion dollar industry of toons and games.
The early promise for such growth is already evident. Large global studios have offshored parts of their animation and gaming work to India, in search of specific advantages such as robust telecom infrastructure, backed by English-speaking graphic designers, and animators who can be quickly made ready for the industry, with relevant training, at costs lower than those prevailing in developed markets.
Globally, the animation industry is poised to touch $100 billion by 2012, with the Indian market expected to capture around $1 billion of this business up from total revenues of $494 million in 2008. "Animation in India is on the right track. There is a lot of interest in it, and therefore a lot of uptake in the sector. Our biggest advantage is the technical expertise in the country," says Imran Khan, studio head of FxLabs, a gaming studio that provides ideas and content for games.
Industry watchers say the animation and gaming industry has crossed a threshold, and is currently on the growth path.
"Any industry needs at least 15-20 years to establish its foothold. The animation and gaming sector in India is 7-8 years old. It will take another 7-8 years to establish the sector as an industry," says AK Madhavan, CEO, Crest Animation, producers of Alpha and Omega, a 3-D computer-animated film, currently showing in 2,600 theatres in the US.
"It has been entirely produced in India," says Mr Madhavan. Indian companies have also been helped by the increase in production budgets for animation movies worldwide. In the past decade, more than 15 animated movies, with budgets over $100 million, have been produced.
Also, with creative technology, the consumer base for animation products has moved beyond children and early teens, to include adults as well, creating a whole new genre of opportunity for creators and marketers. Animation films (2D, 3D) such as Hanuman Returns, Roadside Romeo and Bal Ganesha in India , along with Hollywood productions like Madagascar, Finding Nemo, the Shrek series, Ratatouille and the global grosser Avatar, have attracted audiences across all age groups.
The positivity in the sector is reflected in greater confidence amongst industry players. Earlier in the year, Hyderabad-based animation and game art company DQ Entertainment raised about $56 million, by listing on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market, becoming the first Indian animation company to do so. "The domestic animation sector has been benefiting from the cost reduction initiatives of the international broadcasters. We expect this to spur repeat business," said Mr Khan of FxLabs.
However, while offers for collaborations continue to stream in, the work so far has been largely concentrated on development work, while content creation efforts have been limited. "A lot of cutting-edge work is being done here, due to India's pure technology base. There are some great coders here. However, I do think we have fallen short on the content front.
For example, even today, Disney does the entire storyboarding and passes it down to India. That needs to change. We need to come up with groundbreaking creative content," said Guhesh Ramanathan, advisor with the entrepreneurship incubation cell NSRCEL, at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
There are moves afoot to redress that gap as well. As animation services evolve into development of full-length animation movies in India, a slew of companies, such as such as Iqon Animation House and Mactabills Arts, are charting plans to enter the sector. "Educational games and animation, as a sub-sector of the industry, is showing tremendous growth opportunity. Mactabills has lined up plans to enter this sector in a big way," says Himanshu Pant, partner of Mactabills Arts.
While the country's animation sector seems to be on the right track, it is a rather different story for the domestic gaming sector, where there is a shift from being a service provider for global gaming companies to developing games for the domestic consumer market.
Miniscule compared to the global market, the Indian gaming industry has been hampered by a combination of low content development, absence of regular funding and rampant piracy. But gaming companies are upbeat about the emergence of new platforms, such as mobile and online gaming across Asian countries like Japan, Korea and India.
"In India, gaming has seen a healthy growth of about 40% in the last five years. Also given the growing penetration of data-capable handsets and smartphones, mobile gaming users have increased. While all are not active gamers (i.e. paying subscribers), it has helped increase the number of casual gamers," says Jehil Thakkar, executive director of KPMG. A report on the sector by industry body Nasscom estimates that the Indian gaming industry will grow at 49% to reach $830 million by 2012 up from $167 million in 2008. Globally by 2012, the gaming industry would grow at a CAGR of 10.5% to $53.6 billion in 2012 from $21 billion in 2008.
"The interesting thing on a macro level is that gaming is a bigger business than the movies, especially in the western developed economies. In India, we expect it to turn a billion-dollar business soon," said Vishal Gondal, chief executive of Indiagames . Piracy is a big issue, and people are not paying for games, but this will change over the next 5-6 years, as more paying subscribers will come into the gaming fold, he says.
Indiagames is one of the few gaming companies in the country to have provided risk capital investors with whopping 16 times return on investment . UTV bought a majority stake in 2007, while Cisco and Adobe are key investors. However, other firms are yet to hit it big time, with investors not ready to support animation and gaming companies as yet. "There is no Pixar or Disney-type studio in India.
The sector will have to show they have the means to attract and keep talent and bring in projects from around the world," says Sam Chapin, head of operations , Airawat Advisors, who advises start-ups for angel investment. It is a view that other investors also share. "We've looked at a number of companies, but have not invested yet. Games might look like a fairly straightforward business, but none of the start-ups I have seen have sufficient understanding of the commercial realities," says Algy Williams of Babel Media, a UK-based firm that has been in the Indian market since 2004. "You have to come up with an India-centric business model.
Here, a large percentage of gamers are from the tier-I and tier-II cities, and not necessarily from the metros. Business models have to keep evolving, and that's where I think most have missed out," says Mr Gondal. This will change as the country's digital infrastructure gets built up, he says. "Internet penetration in the country is rather pathetic, with only about nine million internet users right now. 3-G is yet to take off, and mobile internet is too slow at the moment. In spite of all these issues, a number of gaming companies have reported revenues. The infrastructure has to improve, and we do expect it to do so over the next five years," Mr Gondal said. Apart from infrastructure, there is also a need for more creativity in game creation, say industry watchers.
"Most Indian companies are not creating the best games they can. Instead, they're concentrating on bringing the cheapest game here. The have to start creating world-class products. This isn't simply a process, it's a creative process," he said. For instance, FxLabs released a gaming version of Aamir Khan's Ghajini, one of the first gaming studios in the country to try and establish a movie-gaming link. "Ghajini did well in the international markets. Although we reduced the price for the local markets, it didn't perform all that well here," says Mr Khan. To be able to meet growing demands for creative work, the industry will have to beef up talent levels as well.
"Even though animation and gaming training institutes have mushroomed in India, the training aspect has been neglected," says Rajeev Vaishnav, vice-president of industry body Nasscom. "Most of these courses are undertaken by young boys and girls as a summer training ," he says. "Most of them lack the story-telling faculty, though they are well acquainted with the software development skills," says Mr Madhavan of Crest Animation. The promise is evident for India's growing contingent of gamers and toon creators . The challenge now is to transform that promise into substance.
Read more: What Indian animations lack - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6714220.cms?frm=mailtofriend#ixzz121N05Tj0
The Indian gaming and animation industry is now seeking its own Pokemon moment that will be the trigger for domestic animators, illustrators and gaming wizards to collaborate and build a multi-billion dollar industry of toons and games.
The early promise for such growth is already evident. Large global studios have offshored parts of their animation and gaming work to India, in search of specific advantages such as robust telecom infrastructure, backed by English-speaking graphic designers, and animators who can be quickly made ready for the industry, with relevant training, at costs lower than those prevailing in developed markets.
Globally, the animation industry is poised to touch $100 billion by 2012, with the Indian market expected to capture around $1 billion of this business up from total revenues of $494 million in 2008. "Animation in India is on the right track. There is a lot of interest in it, and therefore a lot of uptake in the sector. Our biggest advantage is the technical expertise in the country," says Imran Khan, studio head of FxLabs, a gaming studio that provides ideas and content for games.
Industry watchers say the animation and gaming industry has crossed a threshold, and is currently on the growth path.
"Any industry needs at least 15-20 years to establish its foothold. The animation and gaming sector in India is 7-8 years old. It will take another 7-8 years to establish the sector as an industry," says AK Madhavan, CEO, Crest Animation, producers of Alpha and Omega, a 3-D computer-animated film, currently showing in 2,600 theatres in the US.
"It has been entirely produced in India," says Mr Madhavan. Indian companies have also been helped by the increase in production budgets for animation movies worldwide. In the past decade, more than 15 animated movies, with budgets over $100 million, have been produced.
Also, with creative technology, the consumer base for animation products has moved beyond children and early teens, to include adults as well, creating a whole new genre of opportunity for creators and marketers. Animation films (2D, 3D) such as Hanuman Returns, Roadside Romeo and Bal Ganesha in India , along with Hollywood productions like Madagascar, Finding Nemo, the Shrek series, Ratatouille and the global grosser Avatar, have attracted audiences across all age groups.
The positivity in the sector is reflected in greater confidence amongst industry players. Earlier in the year, Hyderabad-based animation and game art company DQ Entertainment raised about $56 million, by listing on the London Stock Exchange's Alternative Investment Market, becoming the first Indian animation company to do so. "The domestic animation sector has been benefiting from the cost reduction initiatives of the international broadcasters. We expect this to spur repeat business," said Mr Khan of FxLabs.
However, while offers for collaborations continue to stream in, the work so far has been largely concentrated on development work, while content creation efforts have been limited. "A lot of cutting-edge work is being done here, due to India's pure technology base. There are some great coders here. However, I do think we have fallen short on the content front.
For example, even today, Disney does the entire storyboarding and passes it down to India. That needs to change. We need to come up with groundbreaking creative content," said Guhesh Ramanathan, advisor with the entrepreneurship incubation cell NSRCEL, at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore.
There are moves afoot to redress that gap as well. As animation services evolve into development of full-length animation movies in India, a slew of companies, such as such as Iqon Animation House and Mactabills Arts, are charting plans to enter the sector. "Educational games and animation, as a sub-sector of the industry, is showing tremendous growth opportunity. Mactabills has lined up plans to enter this sector in a big way," says Himanshu Pant, partner of Mactabills Arts.
While the country's animation sector seems to be on the right track, it is a rather different story for the domestic gaming sector, where there is a shift from being a service provider for global gaming companies to developing games for the domestic consumer market.
Miniscule compared to the global market, the Indian gaming industry has been hampered by a combination of low content development, absence of regular funding and rampant piracy. But gaming companies are upbeat about the emergence of new platforms, such as mobile and online gaming across Asian countries like Japan, Korea and India.
"In India, gaming has seen a healthy growth of about 40% in the last five years. Also given the growing penetration of data-capable handsets and smartphones, mobile gaming users have increased. While all are not active gamers (i.e. paying subscribers), it has helped increase the number of casual gamers," says Jehil Thakkar, executive director of KPMG. A report on the sector by industry body Nasscom estimates that the Indian gaming industry will grow at 49% to reach $830 million by 2012 up from $167 million in 2008. Globally by 2012, the gaming industry would grow at a CAGR of 10.5% to $53.6 billion in 2012 from $21 billion in 2008.
"The interesting thing on a macro level is that gaming is a bigger business than the movies, especially in the western developed economies. In India, we expect it to turn a billion-dollar business soon," said Vishal Gondal, chief executive of Indiagames . Piracy is a big issue, and people are not paying for games, but this will change over the next 5-6 years, as more paying subscribers will come into the gaming fold, he says.
Indiagames is one of the few gaming companies in the country to have provided risk capital investors with whopping 16 times return on investment . UTV bought a majority stake in 2007, while Cisco and Adobe are key investors. However, other firms are yet to hit it big time, with investors not ready to support animation and gaming companies as yet. "There is no Pixar or Disney-type studio in India.
The sector will have to show they have the means to attract and keep talent and bring in projects from around the world," says Sam Chapin, head of operations , Airawat Advisors, who advises start-ups for angel investment. It is a view that other investors also share. "We've looked at a number of companies, but have not invested yet. Games might look like a fairly straightforward business, but none of the start-ups I have seen have sufficient understanding of the commercial realities," says Algy Williams of Babel Media, a UK-based firm that has been in the Indian market since 2004. "You have to come up with an India-centric business model.
Here, a large percentage of gamers are from the tier-I and tier-II cities, and not necessarily from the metros. Business models have to keep evolving, and that's where I think most have missed out," says Mr Gondal. This will change as the country's digital infrastructure gets built up, he says. "Internet penetration in the country is rather pathetic, with only about nine million internet users right now. 3-G is yet to take off, and mobile internet is too slow at the moment. In spite of all these issues, a number of gaming companies have reported revenues. The infrastructure has to improve, and we do expect it to do so over the next five years," Mr Gondal said. Apart from infrastructure, there is also a need for more creativity in game creation, say industry watchers.
"Most Indian companies are not creating the best games they can. Instead, they're concentrating on bringing the cheapest game here. The have to start creating world-class products. This isn't simply a process, it's a creative process," he said. For instance, FxLabs released a gaming version of Aamir Khan's Ghajini, one of the first gaming studios in the country to try and establish a movie-gaming link. "Ghajini did well in the international markets. Although we reduced the price for the local markets, it didn't perform all that well here," says Mr Khan. To be able to meet growing demands for creative work, the industry will have to beef up talent levels as well.
"Even though animation and gaming training institutes have mushroomed in India, the training aspect has been neglected," says Rajeev Vaishnav, vice-president of industry body Nasscom. "Most of these courses are undertaken by young boys and girls as a summer training ," he says. "Most of them lack the story-telling faculty, though they are well acquainted with the software development skills," says Mr Madhavan of Crest Animation. The promise is evident for India's growing contingent of gamers and toon creators . The challenge now is to transform that promise into substance.
Read more: What Indian animations lack - The Times of India http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/6714220.cms?frm=mailtofriend#ixzz121N05Tj0
No comments:
Post a Comment