Tag: mobile game developer

Mobile games industry in India is on the edge of great health

The smartphone gaming sector has reached unprecedented levels within the country and it is becoming very strong.

When it comes to success in the mobile games industry, India has been taking off at an explosive rate, to the point that many have been saying that it is reaching the level of being very healthy and quite self-sustaining.

This was greatly driven by the sale of game app publisher, Indiagames, to Disney, back in 2012.

Since that time, the country has seen a number of startups that have received significant investments and that are now growing to mature contributors to the global mobile games ecosystem. According to one of the co-founders of Indiagames, Samir Bangara, who is still heavily involved in that market, India has been taking off when it comes to game apps, but it is only just getting started. The sale was closed for an estimated $80 million to $100 million, though the exact figure was never officially disclosed. Bangara is now the co-founder and managing director of Qyuki Digital Media, a “dot video” company.

As fast as mobile games development has been moving in India, the forecasts show that it will only accelerate.

Mobile Games - IndiaAccording to Bangara, who is considered to be one of the top experts in this area in India, as fast as mobile gaming developers seem to be moving right now, it is only at this moment that the acceleration point is expected to truly take off. Although the marketplace still has the typical challenges ahead of it, those are occurring around the world and not exclusively in the Indian market.

The strong foundation that the country has been building over the last few years, combined with the massive population has allowed it to maintain a considerable strength even in its earliest years. The startups in this area have managed to find enthusiastic investors and have the support that they need to get themselves off the ground. A large enough number of those mobile games businesses have now managed to reach the point that they are becoming mature, to the point that they are not as dependent on outside funding but are now self-sustaining.

Mobile gaming to become focus of European game developers

Game developers in Europe are making the move to PC, PS4 and mobile games.

A survey that was conducted by the GDC Europe conference, a conference that takes place in August in Cologne, Germany, found that, in terms of mobile gaming, approximately 65% of European game developers are planning to develop mobile games and 64% intend to make their next titles available for mobile devices.

The survey was based on responses received from over 400 European game developers.

In addition to mobile games, the developers also have plans for other gaming platforms. 18% are developing games for the Sony PlayStation 4 (PS4), which is higher than the 13% who are designing games for Microsoft’s Xbox One. As for the future, 33% anticipate that their next game will be made for the PS4 compared to 23% who expect to release their next game for the Xbox One. Furthermore, an estimated 58% stated that they are developing PC games and 60% of European developers plan to release their next title on the PC.

On the other hand, the survey discovered that while fewer than 10% of European developers use crowdfunding for projects they currently have in the works, 41% intend to make use of this funding source in the future.

The United Kingdom and Germany may be leaders in mobile gaming development in the future.

Mobile Gaming Focus - StudyAlthough Sweden is seen as a leader in game development in Europe, as it is linked to some of the world’s most popular games, like the Battlefield franchise, Candy Crush Saga, Minecraft, and Goat Simulator, the GDC survey reported that many anticipate that within the next five years, Germany and the UK will surpass Sweden.

Around 47% of game developers said that the United Kingdom gives the best tax breaks when it comes to local game development. However, France, Finland, the Netherlands and Germany only received about 9.5% of votes. That being said, according to comments from survey participants, the UK is still considered to be inferior to Canada in terms of tax incentive programs. Canada is still seen as a model for drawing domestic industry talent as well as talent from abroad.

As was previously mentioned, the mobile gaming and gaming survey findings are based on responses from more than 400 European game industry professionals who will either be attending the Game Developer Conference Europe 2014 or who previously attended HDC events.