The gaming PC market in the country has been witnessing exponential growth. While there are no official market figures from the leading research agencies, the market size for gaming PC and hardware is now estimated to be more than Rs 1,000 crore.
“While we may still be [far] away from having an evolved gaming culture compared to the US, Japan or European countries, more gaming enthusiasts are joining the fray every day,” says Sunil Grewal, Sales Head, Gigabyte India.
States P Raghuraman, Director, Transaction Business, AMD India, “Based on feedback from the retailers and system builders, one out of three assembled PCs sold in the country is purchased with gaming as a predominant reason in mind.”
Another way to estimate the size of the PC gaming market is the number of graphics cards sold in the country. It is estimated by leading vendors that the graphics card market is 10-12 percent the size of the assembled PC market, which translates into a market size of 330,000 units. Nearly 80 percent of these cards are exclusively used by gaming enthusiasts, while the rest are accounted for by white-box workstation, graphics and multimedia professionals. At 264,000 units, where the average price of a gaming PC is estimated to around Rs 40,000, the size of the gaming PC market appears to be around Rs 1,056 crore.
There also exists a market for gaming PCs and notebooks through MNC vendors; however, this market is estimated to be as low as 1,000 units a month. Among these vendors is Dell, which is trying to promote PC gaming through a separate Alienware brand.
Four segments
To understand gamers better, vendors have now classified the market into four categories: casual or value segment, mainstream gaming segment, hardcore performance and enthusiasts.
55 percent of the market is estimated to consist of casual or value gamers. “Most of these users typically use a very entry-level graphics card or a processor that has built-in graphics such as AMD’s APU or FX series,” explains PP Shinu, CEO, Kochi-based Hardware Zone. The average price to an end-user is around Rs 25,000 without operating system costs.
The mainstream segment is said to account for around 35 percent of the market. These are products which are priced at an average of Rs 35,000. “This is a market that is opening up in a big way, and will remain a sweet spot for years to come,” says Vinay Shetty, Country Manager, Component Business, Asus India. “We plan to target this segment as an OEM supplier of desktops and also as a motherboard and graphics card maker. They are serious gamers, and would look at graduation to the next level.”
Next is the hardcore performance segment. “This is the segment that is targeted typically by manufacturers like us. The market looks beyond processors and graphics cards for performance, and looks at components such as memory, disk drives and coolers, and higher capacity chassis and power supplies,” says MA Mannan, Country Manager, Corsair India. The product prices range from Rs 50,000 toRs 85,000, and account for about 7 percent of the gaming market.
Finally, there is the enthusiasts segment, with desktops that range between Rs 75,000 and Rs 250,000. The graphics cards used typically cost Rs 30,000 and above, and the processors are almost always overclocked. Enthusiast users are extremely well-informed, and invest in specialized cooling, SSD drives, faster memory and above 900W power supplies. “This is a segment that has grown tremendously over the past one year, and the demand has almost always outstripped supply. Though the prices of high-end graphics cards have been firm, customers have been lapping up products,” says Rajesh Goenka, VP, Sales & Marketing, Rashi Peripherals.
Trends in gaming
Online gaming has been the biggest business driver in the past couple of years. “Typically, gamers gets tired of playing the same game. They want more choice,
and online gaming sites offer, for low subscription costs, options for gamers to play different games every month. Online gaming is the biggest driver today,” says Vishal Dhupar, MD, Sales & Marketing, Nvidia India. Meanwhile, online game makers have started making use of the graphics processing unit (GPU) on the gaming PC for better rendering of their cloud-hosted games.
AMD India is seeing growth for its accelerated processing unit (APU) platform as a result of the gaming boom. “Our APU platform has a built-in Radeon 6000 GPU platform inside the processing silicon, and offers tremendous performance gains for the average gamer. We have also seen that many gamers, after using the APU platform, are going ahead and buying a graphics card to make use of two GPU modules inside the same PC,” says Raghuraman.
While gaming zones are not new, with lower costs to create a mainstream gaming PC, faster ROIs are possible if an entrepreneur is setting up gaming zones. “After the launch of new platforms—such as the GeForce GTX 550 Ti platform—it is possible to create a good gaming PC for less than Rs 40,000, which is very affordable for most gaming enthusiasts,” points out Harish Kumar RP, CEO of the Bengaluru-based Connoisseur Electronics.
Typically, most gaming zones charge Rs 100 per hour, which would translate to Rs 800-1,200 per PC per day. With the lower cost of mainstream gaming PCs, one can get faster ROI on gaming zones, says Kevin Picardo, CEO of the Mumbai-based gaming zone Hangout.
Game of passion
While the demand for gaming PCs and hardware is at a high, most vendors advise partners not to enter the business without knowledge or passion for the business. Remarks Raghuraman, “Like any business, this requires sound knowledge, but apart from knowledge you need to be passionate about gaming and understand the needs of gamers.”
Creating gaming zones within retail outlets where gamers can come, play and decide on the hardware they wish to acquire is a strategy used by some retailers.
But the opportunities for retailers are not limited to gaming PCs. Many IT specialty stores have aligned with gaming console makers, and are reaping profits. “On an average we sell 10 Xboxes as well as Nintendos every quarter. As far as PS2 and PS3 are concerned, we sell around 25 units per quarter. The Xbox and PS3 are more popular among the 18-25 age group, while Nintendos are popular among those from 5-15 years,” says Raj Chopra, Proprietor, Gadgets 4 U, a Delhi-based retailer.
Most gaming enthusiasts are repeat customers, and keep upgrading their gaming rigs. “Many of them wait for the launch of new graphics cards or even other hardware, and are eager to upgrade. They also bring in reference customers as they are a closely-knit community,” says Harish.
Vendors are doing their bit by promoting gaming festivals and even sponsoring gifts. “Nowadays there is at least one gaming festival every month somewhere in India. They are great opportunities for us to connect with the community and deliver our message,” says Raghuraman.
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