An FICCI-KPMG report, published in March 2016, predicted that the mobile gaming market in India will expand from $200 million in 2016 to $3 billion in 2019. While this sector is dominated by many international players (pun intended) like EA, as more Indians come online, the need for localized content has increased.
Nazara is a game-developing company which is also the largest publisher of mobile games in India. Interestingly, they work on creating localized content. Their games have been varied; on Chhota Bheem for kids,
Virat Kohli and
Sachin Tendulkar for Men, and
Hrithik Roshan for men & women have topped app stores over the past year.
They also recently launched a new cricket game with
Rohit Sharma called Rohit Cricket Championship which is currently on the No 4 spot in
Google Play Store. Nazara has exclusive mobile gaming license for the Indian cricket stars till 2018 to develop unique digital gaming experiences for millions of fans.
In an exclusive chat with
Business Insider, Nitish
Mittersain, Founder and MD, Nazara Technologies talked about his company changing their model to be
successful in a sector that is very volatile. He said - “In 2004 when
Sachin decided to come onboard with us, we realized that we cannot just develop our own games, but also get
Intellectual Property rights from companies and work with third party developers. We also developed
Nazara Games Club, which is a subscription-based platform that allows people to choose from a variety of games. This got us a lot of traction.”
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In FY2016, Nazara has claimed to have generated Rs 220 crore in revenues and
has clocked 35 million visitors.
Mittersain believes in the product and being frugal, and that is why his company has been profitable since 2008. He signs off by saying that he hopes that internet penetration in India increases so that the upcoming sectors like gaming can grow further.