MPL parent firm launches Blast+ to bring global games to India

India is the fastest-growing games market in Asia, both in terms of revenue and gamers

M-League, the parent company of Bengaluru-based skill gaming platform Mobile Premier League (MPL) and the European card and board game studio GameDuell, on November 7 announced the launch of a dedicated free-to-play publishing arm, as the firm looks to capitalise on India's rising potential as a global gaming hub.

Called Blast+, the publishing arm will help independent game developers across the world publish and scale their games in the country.

The launch comes shortly after the company announced its intention to make a major foray into the free-to-play gaming sector in India, following the strong performance of GameDuell since its acquisition in 2022. In October, M-League reported that GameDuell has achieved a 50 percent revenue growth since the acquisition, with nearly 70 percent of this revenue coming from free-to-play games.

“We believe that Free to Play (F2P) represents the next big opportunity for gaming in India,” said Sai Srinivas, co-founder of M-League, in a statement.

"The F2P market in India is on the same level that skill gaming was in 2018 when we started MPL. We are already seeing some green shoots, with an uptick in In-App Purchases (IAP) as well as willingness to try new titles. We’re confident that Blast+ can unlock substantial revenue potential for F2P games and attract a new gaming audience in India," Srinivas said.

M-League stated that Blast+ will bring new games from global and indie gaming studios to India, with a dedicated focus on localisation, marketing, live operations, payment solutions, data analytics, and customer service.

The company also mentioned that it has put together a team of industry veterans from prominent gaming firms such as EA (Electronic Arts), Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Wargaming and Scopely, who have worked on games across mobile, desktop, and console games.

M-League also incubated a mobile gaming studio Mayhem Studios in 2022. The studio, which plans to develop big-budget mobile games, is working on Underworld Gang Wars, a battle royale title rooted in India.

Rival firm Nazara Technologies had also launched a game publishing division, Nazara Publishing, in October 2023. The unit had stated plans to launch up to 20 games across mobile, web3, virtual reality (VR) and personal computer (PC) over the next 18 months and invest a minimum of Rs 1 crore a game.

In June, Nazara struck a partnership with gaming veteran Vishal Gondal's mobile games and interactive entertainment firm nCore to publish FAU-G: Domination, a made-in-India multiplayer shooter game that is part of the FAU-G franchise. The game started pre-registrations in September.

India's maturing gaming market

These developments come as India’s gaming sector is showing signs of maturity in terms of user behaviour and their gaming habits and the industry reaching an inflection point in terms of scale and the propensity to pay.

The average revenue per paying user (ARPPU) from in-app purchases touched $19.2 in India in FY23, nearly 10-fold increase from FY19, according to a report from Lumikai, a gaming and interactive media-focused venture fund.

India is the fastest-growing games market in Asia, both in terms of revenue and gamers, according to Niko Partners, a market research and consulting firm that covers video games, e-sports and streaming in the continent.

The combined mobile, PC and console gaming revenue is projected to reach $943 million in 2024, up 13.6 percent from the previous year. The market is expected to surpass $1 billion in revenue in 2025 and reach $1.4 billion in 2028, growing at a five-year compound annual growth rate of 11.1 percent, it said. These figures do not include revenues from real-money games or exports.

The country's overall gaming industry clocked $3.1 billion in revenue in FY23, registering a 19 percent growth from $2.6 billion in FY22. The sector is expected to touch an estimated $7.5 billion by FY28, as per the Lumikai report.