Regional Language Video Games; Sony’s Big Plans

It was 2007 when a post by Rajiv here had a perspective that Regional Language based games and websites would not work in India. But, since then, times have changed and markets have matured. And, I am sure everyone with agree with it.

Recently, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe decided to launch six new regional language games this year. To me, this is a strategic move focused at developing the regional market in India. Sony controls 80 percent of the total market share and is betting big on their plans after the huge success of their first regional language game ‘Hanuman’.

“Regional language games are not in terms of language because most gamers are already proficient in English. Regional language games that we would create are in terms of characters, scenery and stories”, is what Atindriya Bose, Country Manager – Playstation, Sony Computer Entertainment had to say on the occasion of this news release. This is a conscious effort to venture into the emerging regional languages gaming sector in India and it seems like a good move considering the fact that ‘Hanuman’ sold 10,000 units on Day One of its launch. Sony is expecting ‘Hanuman’ (which was developed by Aurona Technologies) to sell 50,000 units by this year and this is more than 300 percent of what any international titled game sells in India.

Noticeably, there have been other initiatives in development of this Regional Language Games market. Candela Software has started working on two quiz centered education games targetted at children preparing for competitive exams. Gameshastra, India’s one of the largest game service company is also developing four games on Indian rural tradition, like ‘gili danda’, ‘kabbadi’, etc. These companies may not prove to be a big enough competitor to Sonay, bt for sure it will help in the development of the regional games market in India. Decently priced at Rs. 499/-, Sony expects to grow by 300 percent this year with plans of launching these games in Hindi, Tamil, Telegu, Bengali and Punjabi.

Internationally, Regional language games such as ‘Khan Wars‘ a strategy based online game played directly through the Web browser in Arabic language is doing pretty well after its successful launch at Dubai World Game Expo last year.

But, the point to be discussed here is the pros. and cons. related to the Gaming Industry worldwide. All the reasons for the increase of this industry goes to our children. Computer and video games have become very popular among children and teenagers aged between seven to sixteen. As goes the saying, “The more popular one is, the more people talk about it” ; the same with the children’s exposure to gaming resulting in more negative things.

For the time, let us rejoice in Sony’s big plans and hope that this gaming industry does well so that revenues through entertainment reach new figures inspite of the global recession.