Industry veterans form GDAI, want to become the voice of India's video-gaming industry

GDAI's formation reflects the growing maturity of the fast-growing video gaming industry in India, the world's second-largest internet market (Image generated by Meta AI)

India's gaming industry veterans have banded together to set up an association to emerge as the voice of video-game developers in the country.

The Game Developer Association of India (GDAI) — pronounced as JEDI, a nod to the Star Wars franchise reflects the growing maturity of the burgeoning video-gaming industry in the world's second-largest internet market.

The association is an extension of the country's oldest community-run game development conference, the India Game Developer Conference (IGDC), started in 2008.

GDAI has an interim board of seven members, with YesGnome co-founder Sridhar Muppidi as the chairperson. Its board members include KGeN co-founder Manish Agarwal and Lakshya Digital founder Manvendra Shukul.

"India's video-gaming and interactive entertainment industry is growing rapidly, nearing $1.2 billion in revenue (half ads and half in-app purchases). But if you want to really grow it in a much faster way, you need a structured body that is representative of the entire ecosystem including developers, publishers, and all associated stakeholders" Agarwal told Moneycontrol in an interview.

Agarwal, who previously served as the CEO of Nazara Technologies, said this was a "gap they wanted to fill", as policymakers engage with people who represent the entire ecosystem and not individuals.

The formation of this association makes it easier for anyone seeking to understand the video gaming and interactive entertainment sector, he said.

India has several gaming industry bodies including the All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), the E-Gaming Federation (EGF), and the Federation of Indian Fantasy Sports (FIFS). They, however, primarily represent the real-money gaming industry, which includes fantasy sports, rummy, and poker, among others. The influential industry body Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI) also has a Digital Gaming Committee.

Agarwal noted these bodies were created by organisations after which they co-opted members but GDAI hasn’t been by an organisation. "It is created by the community, for the community and it is truly representative of the community," he said.

Agarwal mentioned there are multiple industry bodies interacting with different (state and central) governments.

“The question we've been looking into is that video gaming and interactive entertainment is purely enshrined in entertainment whereas the cash-in, cash-out (also referred to as real-money gaming) is enshrined in the ability to make money. These are two very different behaviours,” he said. However, as the overall industry has grown rapidly in the past five to six years, there has been no differentiation between types of gaming, and everything has been clubbed under gaming, he said.

Creating a distinction between video games and real-money games has been a long-pending request of gaming studios in India.

In July, Moneycontrol reported that a group of 70 game studios and esports companies had written to the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), seeking a comprehensive policy that clearly distinguishes between video games and real-money games in line with global standards.

They suggested making the information and broadcasting ministry the nodal agency for video games. They also proposed two categories — video games and real-money games — to ensure fair and balanced policymaking while capturing the distinction between the two.

The ministry of information technology (MeitY) is the nodal ministry for all online gaming matters. In November, Sanjay Jaju, secretary of information and broadcasting ministry, said there is a clear division between MIB and MeitY in terms of governing the games sector in the country. "The content aspects are handled by us (MIB), because we understand this as a media entertainment business. The regulatory aspects are all handled by them (MeitY)," he said.

A snapshot of India's gaming market

What will GDAI focus on?

Agarwal said GDAI will engage with the Centre and state governments in areas such as skilling, incubation, talent creation and development and forming public-private partnerships to establish gaming-focused institutes.

It will also facilitate discussions on policies from the lens of the video-gaming industry and deliver follow-up actions and execution plans.

Chairperson Muppidi said GDAI is already working with the information and broadcasting ministry for a national-level Game Jam, a hackathon where college students create games based on select themes. The event is part of the government's World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES), which will be held from February 5-9, 2025.

It has tied up with over 50 colleges and conducted similar game jams this year, he said.

Muppidi said almost every top gaming company is already a member of GDAI, with a significant number on the waitlist. Since it is a Section 8 non-profit organisation, foreign companies can't directly join as members but individuals and local branches of these firms can enrol as members.

According to the GDAI website, some of the members include local firms such as Nazara Technologies, JetSynthesys, Gameberry Labs, MPL-backed Mayhem Studios, Bombay Play, Masala Games, Moonfrog Labs, Playsimple, Dot9 Games, 99Games, and Outlier Games, as well as international companies such as Microsoft (Xbox), Electronic Arts, Krafton and Savvy Games Group-owned Scopely.

GDAI will eventually have a 21-member governing council to handles its operations, Muppidi said.

Apart from its flagship IGDC, the industry body has launched several initiatives over the past year or two to support the country's game development ecosystem. These include Game Connect, an initiative aimed at college students keen on pursuing a career in game development, and Developer Days, single-day events for developers and industry leaders to connect, upskill, and showcase their skills.

It also launched a “Women in Games” initiative earlier this year to encourage female participation in game development.

Building a skilled workforce

On December 9, GDAI will release for general public a white paper detailing a roadmap for incubation and ecosystem development to boost the sector. It was first unveiled by information and broadcasting special secretary Neerja Sekhar and Tamil Nadu IT Minister Palanivel Thiagarajan at IGDC 2024 in Hyderabad in November.

One focus area is to build a skilled workforce through specialised gaming courses, fostering academia-industry partnerships, and establishing tailored funding and incubation programmes to support gaming startups from concept to market.

"Worldwide, there are about 60 lakh video game developers. India has 25,000 which is ridiculously low...That said, over 15 percent of the world's gamers are in India, so there is a significant market here" Muppidi said.

India accounts for less than a percent of the $188 billion global gaming market, indicating the growth potential in the country.

Muppidi said the reason more people aren't building games is due to the lack of formal education around it and those entering the field are driven purely by their passion for gaming.

The white paper suggests investing in the development of new institutions dedicated to gaming and interactive media while also encouraging prominent international gaming institutes to establish campuses in the country. It further recommends establishing game and R&D labs in top universities, offering internationally recognised courses and hands-on industry experience.

GDAI also advocates collaborating with industry experts to design a specialised curriculum featuring gaming-specific courses in game design, development, engineering, animation, QA, analytics, marketing, and monetisation.

It also proposed introducing dedicated gaming courses in national institutions like NID, IITs, IIITs, NITs, and other major colleges, including minor electives in video gaming.

On September 18, the union cabinet approved the a National Centre of Excellence (NCoE) for Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics and Extended Reality (AVGC-XR) in Mumbai.

Called Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT), the institute will be modelled after IITs and IIMs, anchoring India’s animation ecosystem by providing specialised training to both beginners and professionals. It will also foster research and development by uniting experts from various fields such as computer science, engineering, design, and art.

Need for specialised incubators

In the white paper, GDAI also highlights the need for a specialised incubation programmes that can help young game developers and studios with infrastructure support, tools, market access, training and mentorship, and funding, as well as IP protection and monetisation strategies.

The Centre should create a National Gaming Incubator, complemented by a dedicated fund, while states should establish regional gaming incubators, R&D centres, and innovation hubs, it says. It should also be established in universities, leveraging multi-disciplinary expertise in engineering, design, art, and data among others.

GDAI also calls for partnering with gaming companies to set up industry-backed incubators to offer mentorship, real-world project opportunities, and funding, thereby bridging the gap between academia and professional game studios.

South Korean gaming giant Krafton launched a gaming incubator, the Krafton India Gaming Incubator, in October 2023, with four startups selected for its first cohort. Sony Interactive Entertainment also operates an India-centric incubator programme called the India Hero Project, tailored to its PlayStation platform.

IMAGE, a Centre of Entrepreneurship (CoE), is a startup accelerator focused on gaming, animation, VFX, computer vision, and artificial intelligence. It is an initiative by STPI – Hyderabad, MeitY, and the Telangana government. Karnataka has also announced plans to launch the Centre of Excellence (CoE) for Gaming earlier this year.

India is the fastest-growing games market in Asia, both in terms of revenue and gamers, as per industry estimates.

The country's video gaming sector is projected to reach $5.6 billion by 2029, driven by a strong growth momentum in in-app purchases and advertising, according to a report by gaming and interactive media venture fund Lumikai.