The worldwide boom of online gaming is allowing India to export its growing industry of game
development to international levels.
Game development studios like Moonfrog Labs or Gameberry Labs have produced world-
recognized games that have topped and even continue topping download ranks in app stores.
In effect, society has shifted a long time ago to digital platforms to look for ways to satisfy their
entertainment needs, and in this regard, the gaming industry has benefited from the digital
revolution.
From the shooter frenzy of online games like Counter-Strike to free-to-play games like League
of Legends and Fortnite, it seems as if the digital realm is the ideal place to develop and spread the popularity of games.
Even classic games are finding their way to digital platforms. Board Game Arena is an online
platform that accounts for more than 7 million active users on its website. They offer digitalized
versions of traditional board games available to play online and between players all around the
world.
Another very popular category in the gaming landscape is the online casino industry. Just as
with traditional games, online casino platforms have managed to adapt to the digital world by
recreating classic land-based casino games in their online versions. Games like poker,
blackjack, roulette, or slots are just some of the most popular among gamers.
Casino games offer their clients attractive bonuses to try a variety of games or to reward their activity.
Precisely in the category of classic games, an Indian game development studio like Gameberry
Labs managed to launch in 2017 the award-winning online game Ludo Star, better known in
India as Parchisi, a classic board game widely popular in Spain and Latin America. Played by 6
million users across 15 countries, the game experienced a rapid rise in 2019 and 2020 due to the pandemic and people staying in homes needing ways to keep sharing with loved ones at
distance.
Ludo Star was initially a success in Pakistan where it rapidly became the number 1 downloaded app for months, even making the news for its success among gamers. So rooted it was in the gaming culture of Pakistan, that it became very popular in Saudi Arabia at the same time, as Pakistani immigrants quickly received the news of the game of their families and friends.
Then came Parchisi Star, a slightly different version of Ludo Star targeted for the Spanish
culture that has been very successful as well. And from there, the list continues to grow with
more games like Bankrupt, another board game, Word Pirate Adventure, a word learning game,and Woodblock Puzzle, a classic puzzle game.
Gameberry labs is based in Bengaluru which is a region known as a specialized hub in the tech
industry. It has been baptized as the Silicon Valley of India as it historically concentrates the
best IT talent in India.
But the rapid growth of the sector has made it that other cities like Mumbai host Indian studios
like GameNagri or JetSynthesys that recently partnered with Square Enix, one of the biggest
game developers in the world. The Japanese studio is known for its famous RPG, Final Fantasy, one of the biggest franchises in videogame history. Square Enix chose India’s JetSynthesys to launch Ludo Zenith, another game inspired by the success of Ludo Star.
Now the next frontier to explore for the online gaming community in India will be the one
opened by the rapid rise of NFT’s and blockchain technology.
The revolution of play-to-earn games will be the next phenomenon in online gaming as players
get financially rewarded for spending their time playing games.
The most popular play-to-earn NFT game of 2021 was Axie Infinity, a game inspired by the
famous franchise of Pokémon, where players get to form a team of creatures called Axies that
are used to battle opponents and to complete daily tasks required to win prizes and tokens that
serve as the own cryptocurrency of the game, and therefore, the possibility of making money
through the game.
If Indian studios can replicate their success with mobile gaming with the new wave of NFT
gaming, then it could settle India as one of the leaders in the online gaming industry.
