While thousands of employees of big tech companies continue to remain worried about their future amid the layoffs, the online gaming industry in India, which is expected to reach $1.9 bn by 2024, could help reduce the burden.
The industry currently employs nearly 50,000 people, with programmers and developers accounting for 30% of the workforce.
According to a new report from staffing firm TeamLease Digital, the industry is expected to grow by 20-30% and create one lakh new direct and indirect jobs by the end of FY23. The report highlighted that these expected new job opportunities are expected to be available across all domains, including programming, testing, animation and design.
WILL THEY, WON’T THEY?
According to Soham Thacker, CEO and Founder of Gamerji, the pace of growth of this industry would help generate more jobs, but may not help the tech guys who have been laid off recently. It is because apart from the technical jobs, there are other skill-based jobs such as animation, graphics, content creation, game development, professional playing, etc. which comprise the total pool of jobs in the industry. Manvendra Shukul, CEO and Founder of Lakshya, also said that game development requires knowledge, as well as competencies in specific game engines or technologies. He said the tech company employees would need “major retraining/ reskilling” before they can contribute effectively to a game development project.
However, Roland Landers, CEO of All India Gaming Federation (AIGF), believes the gaming industry may help decrease the heat of layoffs. “There is a huge demand for highly skilled talent and the gaming industry can act as a window of opportunity for many who have had to face lay-offs recently, especially if they are keen to contribute to a sunrise sector for Digital India.”
THE PAY STATION
According to Landers, packages may vary from place to place and a lot depends on the profits. “For instance, ambiguities in the valuation mechanisms for goods and services tax (GST) from the industry. It could lead to disastrous outcomes and need to be addressed so that we do not end up with an 1100% increase in tax liability,” he said, adding, “This ambiguity in the GST regime can have ripple effects affecting profitability.”
Meanwhile, Gamerji CEO said gaming pays at par or maybe even more in certain positions for specialised talent than the conventional IT jobs. “Good content creators or game developers are paid handsomely. Game development or the virtual graphics industry pays the most; not only Indian, but foreign companies also outsource their work to skilled Indian game development studios. Even content creation yields good money for influencers, where brands pay anywhere from a few thousand to lakhs for ad integrations.”
Shukul said there is a misconception that the video games industry doesn’t pay enough. “It is one of the best paymasters compared to most sectors. In game engineering, with the right skills, you can earn more than a regular IT job in India and abroad. Even in the art and animation field of game development, artists get paid as much as or even more than any other regular job for an artist. The same holds true for a game designer position. Other positions in the gaming industry pay the same, if not more, than their equivalents in other industries,” he said.
JOB AT HAND
According to Landers, in the gaming industry, there are a lot of roles available across different levels. When asked whether the industry prefers experienced individuals over freshers, Landers believe that talent matters the most, and the experience is secondary.
Thacker stated it is very difficult to find experienced talent in gaming because of the age of the industry. “Hence fresh talent with good interest to learn is preferred,” he added.
Shukul believes that with the right basic competencies and skills, the required training for upskilling can be provided. “That is why focus on creating good and industry-relevant training programmes is the need of the hour,” he suggested.
GROWTH STORY
Landers stated that India’s gaming industry has seen the greatest adoption in the mobile gaming segment. According to him, unlike overseas, India has seen great smartphone-based growth, while good gaming computers or consoles are still unaffordable for most gamers. “Mobile gaming is also a sector that is seeing a lot of growth. Hopefully, we will see an increase in demand for esports, PC and console gaming,” said Landers.
Bhaskar Majumdar, Managing Partner, Unicorn India Ventures, told News18 that this industry is burgeoning with the number of gamers, especially GenZ. He believes that with the intersection of Web3, Metaverse and gamification, more companies will emerge and create opportunities for young talent. Citing a report by Niko Partners, Majumdar said that the PC and mobile gaming market in India is projected to reach a total of 396.4 million gamers this year, generating a player spending of $704.5 million.
“India is currently the fastest growing market, both in terms of revenue and number of gamers, in the Asia-10 region. Online gaming will undoubtedly boom and witness massive growth,” he said.
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