With the European, north American and Japanese game industries so prominent in people's minds, it's easy to forget that there are other flourishing markets.
Gameshastra, India's "biggest game services company" has primarily focused on ports and outsourcing up until this point, but is now expanding into other territories and plans to make and publish many more original games. Whilst its current portfolio is lightweight, the company plans to raise their game over the coming years.
We spoke to Martin Ogden, former director at mobile game developer Player One Sports, and now head of European operations at Gameshastra, about the difficulties of exporting Indian culture, why the digital market has provided the perfect conditions to do so, and the growing importance of mobile gaming.
What attracted you to heading the European arm of Gameshastra?
I was working with Player One Sports before, which is a sports-based casual games publisher, and we were looking to increase our development capability. I came across Gameshastra, and put together a deal – they were providing 85 – 90 per cent of all development for Player One Sports.
I was looking for a bigger challenge – a broader base of digital platform, not just smart phones – and through that process, I sat down with Prakash Ahuja, CO of Gameshastra, and he took me through his ambitions for the company. He wanted to expand into Europe, a prospect which I found exciting, and he offered me the chance to take it on and run with it – it was too good to turn down really.
So having endured the 37 degree heat and too many chicken biryanis, I became very interested in the guys – technically, they are just superb, and the passion that they put into what they do knocked me over.
This is the first time an Indian gaming company has attempted to break into the western market, why is now the right time to do so?
In terms of my previous experience, having gone through the start of mobile games publishing through Java, and the beginning of iPhone, for me the real barrier to the success of digital games, is that it's the only industry in which all the key partners aren't pushing the same way.
You had content publishers and developers producing some great quality products, the main route to market for which was the operators who, for whatever reason, saw data content (which is what they called it, rather than entertainment) as a negligible proportion of their revenue – about 10 per cent. So, of course, they were focused on the voice content, we were focused on the 'data content', and the handset manufacturers just wanting to shift hardware.
This fragmented the market infinitely, but now with the advance of the iPhone and Android handsets, and even Sony's PSN minis, and services like XBLA and WiiWare, those barriers and frustrations are finally going, so I think the developers and publishers with a strong line up, and good marketing support, can now reach the consumers, and it's actually quite a painless experience.
Japan's games industry has actively westernised its output over the last few years, in order to capitalise on a global user base. What challenges will Gameshastra face in expanding its own market?
Well I don't think that there are any challenges that are insurmountable, it's just joined-up thinking. I mean, we've already got an operation in the US based in New Jersey, now Europe too, and we are starting up a Japanese operation as well. And I guess one of the roles that I will take in overseeing the European operation, is to be a barometer, driving the conceptualization of projects, looking for products that are a strong fit for the European market place, and coordinating that with our US team.
So rather than simply have the ideas coming out of India, which are fantastic in terms of what they do, but yes, slightly removed from the western market place, we're going to try and close the loop and make sure there's a real cross-fertilization of skills. So producers, and key people from our Indian facility, will be spending time with people from our European and US offices.
So this is very much about globalizing the company, not just its products?
It's exactly that – we want to have a road map of points in which we're self-publishing (whilst simultaneously outsourcing) and maximizing investments – we don't want to close off key regions because of the nature of what we're green lighting and developing.
And what unique aspects can Gameshastra bring to other markets?
Well, certainly from a mind-set point of view, it's the passion that these guys have that we want to channel. In terms of content, and what they've been doing so far, there is clearly a sizable western Asian market, and we're looking at Bollywood-style concepts, and also right now there's a really special relationship between Europe and Gameshastra working on specific Indian projects.
Specifically, we're looking to work closely with large European publishers, localizing successful western releases into Indian language iterations, and engaging with the domestic Indian market through that route too.
Outsourcing and ports form a large part of Gameshastra current portfolio, but you've said that you seek to establish a new consumer brand with this move. To what degree do original titles factor in to Gameshastra's plans?
I thought you were going to ask this! At the moment, Gameshastra have been trying out a little digital publishing themselves, but it's just a start, so it's local stuff right now. But I would say that within two years we would want 75 per cent of our revenue to be driven by self-published projects.
But of course, our outsourcing is a cash cow that we would seek to continue to grow. But as well as our own road map, in which we're originating original IP, and the established brands we will work on, we're also going to be looking to partner with existing publishers and developers.
I mean, there are a lot of publishers that I'm talking to right now, who, whilst they can see that further down the line they want to be supporting all digital platforms, they're trying to focus on maybe two or three platforms right now. So one of the roles I'm going to have is to put partnerships together that ensure that digital platform rights for strong franchises are fully exploited across all digital platforms.
Gameshastra's output is very much focused on casual, lightweight games right now. Will this change in order to deliver your promise of providing "highest-quality entertainment to all digitally-enabled devices"?
Obviously, we've got to be sensible with what we're focusing on, but the plan is to move on to pretty much all digital formats. We want to support all smart phones, and certainly not just PSP minis – we want to work out which franchises are strongest, and look at PSN, XBLA, and Facebook too. But probably the one area we're not looking to focus on right now, is online browser based games.
So it's quite a shift from Gameshastra's current position then?
It is, and in terms of the other formats coming, 3DS and so on, there's this general impression that I certainly had in the past, that a lot of the non-western European and non-US companies, such as the Asian, eastern European, and so on, churn out cheap and cheerful ports, and really weren't focused on game design.
But we're really focused on actually putting together game design that brings together the full functionality of features that we're looking at. And we're also looking to put together a partnership with a US based games design specialist to help with that as well.
If you look at the companies who are most aggressively approaching the Indian market, it's Sony. And we're working closely with those guys to exploit the Indian culture, and work around the problems and problems you face in terms of distribution. But there's a way to make it work, sure.
I think with Europe, it's not just the European marketplace, what we're going to be doing is ensuring we have global concepts, and we will have games released that with within Europe and US. Japan is a little bit trickier, again like most western video game professionals, we're not that familiar with the Japanese market, which is why we hired a guy over there to over see things.
So you're really not considering each market as a discrete objective, but instead looking for ways to integrate them all?
Yeah, I think what we need to make sure of is that we're not tripping over stuff from different regions, I mean I'm going to be driving Europe's focus solely, but making sure what I do adds to the US and Japanese efforts too. And we need to build a strong relationship with the carriers, not just the actual store owners such as Google and Apple.
With Gameshastra looking to expand, the Indian market seems to be in rude health. Do you see India joining north America, Europe, and Japan as a major player?
Right now, I wouldn't make any predictions on the way the Indian market will go. But it will grow, and the piracy issues will be worked around. The important thing for us, is that we understand the marketplace (our CO is from India), and we're partnering with Sony who also have experience in the region. So we're well placed – we're on the right hand shoulder of the people who we think can determine whether India will be a success.
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