BENGALURU: The city was recently host to what can be be probably described as India’s first ever mobile eSports event held at the CII’s India Gaming Show, last month. Rajan Navani, Vice Chairman and Managing Director at JetSynthesys Pvt. Ltd that organised the event says mSports will allow mobile gamers to be recognized at a national level as it has been with PC gaming and Console Gaming. He interacted with CE.
Tell us about this mobile eSports event in India?
The eSports event saw games like Sachin Saga, Ludo King, Doodle Army 2 and Asphalt 8 Airborne. It also marked the semi-finals and finals of the Sachin Saga tournament where over 20,000 players participated in paid qualifiers to enter the semi-finals at the India Gaming Show.
It was a hotly contested event and winners took home many prizes including signed merchandises
from Sachin Tendulkar.
What is this new phenomena of mobile eSports all about?
Mobile game adoption has grown exponentially in the country with over 100 million mobile gamers and over a billion game downloads annually in India.
With our top grossing cricket game like Sachin Saga, we created a format where we are enabling the best gamers on mobile to come together and compete in qualifiers, and competitive tournaments at the grand finale at the India Gaming Show.
According to you, where is mobile gaming headed in India?
Mobile Gaming in India is only going to grow by leaps and bounds from here.
With the next 300 to 500 million Indians who will join the mobile internet revolution and with financial inclusion, the revenues from the mobile gaming sector will also see new levels in the next few years.
We see players transacting in our games from North to South of India, and playing over one hour daily which is testament to the power the format holds if the game has the right engagement and monetisation.
Where do you think India stands in the global gaming and eSports scenario?
India’s eSports scene is fairly nascent and emerging, compared to global countries like China and the US, where competitive gaming on PC and consoles has been prevalent for the past decade.
But the future holds a lot of promise to engage the best gamers and create careers around gaming beyond game development as streamers, commentators.