MUMBAI: Reliance Industries Ltd chairman Mukesh Ambani on Monday hinted at what could be the next big bet for RIL in the entertainment space – online gaming.
Asia’s richest man, in a “fireside chat” with Microsoft Corp CEO Satya Nadella at Microsoft’s Future Decoded Summit here Monday, declared: “Gaming will be bigger than music, movies and television shows put together (in India).”
The country’s most influential and powerful corporate leader’s comments were in response to Nadella’s prodding about enthusiasm shown by Ambani’s son Akash in the market potential gaming offered in India.
Ambani noted: “Akash is very excited about (the potential of gaming)… Gaming doesn’t really exist in India.
“Everything we’re doing with X Cloud and broadband connectivity, I think there is huge potential. For some of us who don’t know what gaming is… It’s very hard to imagine that gaming will be bigger than music, movies and TV shows all put together.”
It is worth recalling that it was at RIL’s 42nd AGM in August 2019 that Reliance Jio directors Akash Ambani and his twin sister Isha Ambani announced a new 4K set-top-box which would be a part of its Jio Fiber service. Apart from offering entertainment services, the product also supported gaming capabilities.
During a demonstration, the siblings showcased how one can play games using the Jio set-top-box, which was claimed to be ‘at par with the leading gaming platforms globally.’ Jio had also confirmed at the time it would be partnering with popular gaming publishers like Tencent, Gameloft, and Microsoft.
With the rise of cheap high-speed internet in India driven in large part by Reliance’s Jio, Ambani clearly sees merit in online gaming. At the current pace, the revenue from online gaming is expected to see exponential growth in the coming years.
Emerging regions such as India have become a new frontier for the $140 billion industry’s biggest players. It is forecast that by end-2020, the Indian gaming market will be worth $1.1 billion, near double to the $543.8 million recorded in 2016, but still only “loose change”, when compared with the overall size of gaming’s global ecosystem.
Revenue from online gaming is expected to climb to $1.65 billion by fiscal 2023, KPMG said in a March 2019 report.
As for the market value of mobile gaming in India, it will reach about $405 million by 2022, according to forecasts. It is is anticipated that the number of mobile phone gamers will reach 628 million by 2020-end, according to the same forecasts.
Investments from big players such as Alibaba, Tencent, Nazara and Youzu are all contributing to the rapid growth of gaming in India.
