South Korean gaming company Krafton, which has to its credit games like PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds popularly known as PUBG and its India version called Battlegrounds Mobile India (BGMI), has invested in an Indian mobile game development studio called Nautilus Mobile.
Making its first investment in a game development studio in India, Krafton has infused $5.4 million in Nautilus Mobile that was acquired by digital entertainment and technology company JetSynthesys in October 2020.
"We are committed to enhancing the video game ecosystem in India and this is yet another step in that direction,” said Sean Hyunil Sohn, India head of Krafton.
Over the past year, Krafton has made several startup investments in the country, including those in game streaming platform Loco, esports firm Nodwin Gaming, Indian language storytelling platform Pratilipi and audio romance and friend discovery startup FRND.
Offering a simulation-based cricket gaming franchise called Real Cricket, Nautilus Mobile is looking at three areas to utilise the funds raised.
"The most important area where we see Real Cricket emerging is it can become esports export to the world. There is no esports game that has come out of an Indian studio," Rajan Navani, founder and CEO of JetSynthesys and chairman of Nautilus, told Moneycontrol.
He added, "We recently did an esports tournament between US and India and that was a good cue for us to see how we take cricket in these markets."
The next area of focus for Nautilus is expansion in global markets.
"There’s a huge global market that can be addressed with cricket. 85 percent of Real Cricket gaming experiences come from India, and the rest from markets like South Asia, New Zealand, UK, Australia. US, Japan and Korea are the three key markets for us while we also strengthen our presence in the Middle East, UK, Europe," said Navani.
Although Navani did not mention which sports other than cricket the company will be looking at, he said that through this investment they will be adding more game titles. Nautilus will also look at expanding the talent pool.
Currently with with one crore monthly active users (MAUs), Real Cricket is looking at 40-50 percent growth this year in terms of user base and monetisation.
In addition to Nautilus Mobile, JetSynthesys has products in its portfolio including 100MB (a joint venture with Sachin Tendulkar), AnyDay Money (JV with Serum Institute of India CEO Adar Poonawalla), ThinkRight.me (meditation and mindfulness app), Sonic Jobs (job portal for blue-collared jobs), JobDost (Recruitment technology service), and Wakau (short-form video).
The company's portfolio of products and services are across three key verticals - gaming & esports, digital entertainment, and interest-based social community platforms. It acquired Chennai-based esports firm Skyesports in August last year and is also a key investor in Nodwin Gaming, a subsidiary of diversified gaming and sports media firm Nazara Technologies.
When it comes to overall mobile gaming market in India, Navani said that every month the country is adding 10-15 million gamers and that growth will continue to come. He added, "India will have high double digit growth in gaming for the next 8-10 years."
India's mobile gaming market with a user base of over 300 million is estimated to be worth $1.5 billion in revenues and is expected to reach $5 billion by 2025, according to a report by Boston Consulting Group (BCG), a management consulting firm.
Navani said that India’s base is small which is why there is big scope to grow.
India's overall gaming market that is worth $1.8 billion accounts for only 1 percent of the global gaming market but is growing at 38 percent CAGR (compound annual growth rate).
Navani added that government's announcement of conducting 5G auction in 2022 and metaverse are going to be big drivers for the gaming industry in India.
"Most of the games that people play in India are international games. The larger player base is for international games. So, how do we get Indian gaming studios to create titles that appeal to more Indian gamers and also take it global. Hope government will provide the framework especially with focus on animation, visual effects, gaming and comics (AVGC) sector in Budget 2022," said Navani who is also chairman of the Confederation of Indian Industry's National Council on Future Businesses.
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