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Sony, Microsoft vie for Indian console market pie |
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Written by Chandan Das
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Friday, 26 October 2007 |
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The console market in India is heating up with rivals Sony Computer Entertainment and Microsoft India vying for a share of the pie. Acting in Bollywood fashion, both the companies recently launched new console products in India promising an entire new gaming vista to the gamers.
Sony Computer Entertainment, the company responsible for the distribution, marketing and sales of PlayStation, opened its office in India just four months back and is now getting its strategy in place to offer variety and a better experience to gamers. The company is now planning to increase its market share in the console games business in the country.
In India console games are in their infancy and are commonly referred to as video games played on a device called video game console like the Microsoft (Xbox), Sony PlayStation, and Nintendo (Wii). Nevertheless, console games have a market of around Rs 60 crore and it is expected to touch Rs 550 crore by 2010.
No wonder, Sony is keen on spreading its business to get a major share of this market – at least an estimated 30 per cent share of the total gaming market by 2010. And the company’s first step in this direction was to slash the prices of games and gaming console so that users are not restrained due to cost factor.
Meanwhile Sony alone is not eyeing for the market pie, as Microsoft too has a desire to grab the slice of growing gaming market in India. So while Sony has launched an Indian Version of its popular PlayStation 2 title “Singstar’, Microsoft too has announced the date of availability for Xbox Live in India. Although both the events were unrelated, the fact that these announcements were made on the same day was symbolic of the fact that the two gaming giants are now desperate to tap the yet unexplored Indian gaming market.
Sony is now looking at creating games locally, for which it is eyeing Bollywood content which is popular among the Indian Diasporas. The company is also working with Derek O’ Brian to launch its quiz-based game called ‘Buzz in India’ that is planned for a pre-Christmas launch.
With the Xbox Live, Microsoft is connecting the Indian consumers to a world of 7 million Xbox Live members around the world. It will enable people to experience a broad spectrum of entertainment content and personalize and share it with their friends and social communities.
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