A Game Changer For the Gaming Industry? The announcement of setting up an AVGC promotion task force has been lauded by experts; 5G spectrum auction and digital rupee to help the industry
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Are you a gaming enthusiast, interested in the field of animation, visual effects and comics? Then the Union Budget 2022 caters to your inclinations. Presenting the Union Budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman, said, "The AVGC sector offers immense potential to employ youth. An AVGC promotion task force with all stakeholders will be set up to recommend ways to realize this and build domestic capacity for serving our markets and the global demand."
According to a KPMG report, the number of online gamers in India grew from approximately 250 million gamers in 2018 to 400 million gamers by the mid of 2020.The sector has witnessed tremendous growth in the last five years and is expected to reach $3.9 billion by 2025.
The gaming industry is a soon-to-be trillion-dollar industry and it is heartening to see the exponential potential in the sector has been acknowledged, said Paavan Nanda, co-founder of WinZO, a leading gametech company. "We welcome the announcement of setting up an AVGC task force with the objective of building domestic capacity to serve our markets and global demand. We are willing to work with public stakeholders to attract the best talent in this growing industry."
"It is very encouraging to see some of the long-pending suggestions from the AVGC sector being taken into consideration. This announcement highlights the need to build capacity to serve both domestic and global markets and is a strong indicator of the impetus that the government is willing to provide for its growth. Moreover, it will also help develop a workforce of young and employable AVGC professionals to usher in the next tech revolution from within India," said Sai Srinivas, co-founder and CEO, Mobile Premier League (MPL).
The AVGC sector can also be expanded to include online skill gaming, said Roland Landers, CEO at All India Gaming Federation. "Mostly, the games that come under AVGC sector are pertinent to game development. The task force will boost the sector as far as gaming development is concerned. Today, India constitutes 10 per cent of the global AVGC market, this task force will help India scale new heights globally. Moreover, with the introduction of the 5G network, the entire user experience will transform. It will be a game changer," he said.
Landers added that the plan to auction 5G spectrum will also help the gaming industry as it will augur well for virtual and augmented reality improving gaming experience. He also said the plan to issue digital rupee will help in increasing ARPU through in-app purchases.
