In yet another development, the Indian Game Developer Conference (IGDC) will be transformed into an association. IGDC was under the aegis of the National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom) but it will be transformed into an independent body early next year. Rajesh Rao, chairperson of IGDC confirmed this development during IGDC 2019. He also discussed the reason behind the talent crunch in India.
Discussing the scope of gaming in India, over 30 crore players majority of which are mobile gamers and 300 game developing companies keeps India among the top five gaming destinations in the world. According to Rajesh Rao, the annual growth of the gaming industry is 22 percent in terms of revenue and the growth of esports players. However player to payer conversion is facing tremendous challenges to date.
Rajesh Rao said, "We are planning to be on the lines of Nasscom, the IGDC has been working to bring together to manage the ecosystem of players onto a single platform to share ideas on developing the industry and discuss challenges that the nascent industry is facing. This was long overdue. We expect it to happen early next year."
Talking about talent crunch in India, Rajesh said, "There is not enough training happening. The talent that should be in the industry is not there in the industry. Those at some training institutes have never developed a game in their lives. The industry is ready to help the educational institutes train their students in the required skills to tap the opportunity in the gaming sector."
For the unversed, Rajesh Rao is one of the earliest players in the Indian gaming industry, he founded, ran and sold his game development services company Dhruva to Starbreeze Studios, a Stockholm NASDAQ listed games company in 2017. It was later acquired by Rockstar Games, makers of Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, this year.