Animation and gaming industry

Animation refers to a rapid display of time sequenced frames used to create an illusion of movement. One of the first traces of animation lies way back in history with hand drawn figures, sketches, etc. found in the ancient caves. Today, animation has become a booming industry. With gaming also being one of the many fields that uses animation, it has gained huge popularity especially amongst the younger generation.

Ever increasing popularity

This ever increasing popularity has also helped the gaming industry to turn into a rapidly growing Stainless Steel Fondue Forks and flourishing industry. The US is the largest market for animation worldwide, thanks to its two major animation studios; Disney Pixar and Dreamworks, which every year produces many movies for the worldwide audience.

In terms of share in the gaming market, again US has the largest share worldwide followed by Japan and Europe, although China is the fastest growing market for gaming. The global Animation and Gaming industry is growing at a rate of 12% p.a. (2005-2009),is already a USD 115 Billion industry and going by the current growth rate of 10%p.a., the industry is expected to be worth USD 170 Billion by the end of 2013. In India, the animation and gaming industry is just a flourishing one with major advancements taking place in the past decade. Inspite of it being a relatively new industry in India, it is growing at a whooping rate of 39% p.a. and is already a USD 739 Million industry.

Industry revenue

The revenue generated by the industry is mainly through [outsourcing] with the Indian industry catering majorly to US and UK. Although the industry is growing at a rapid pace in India, the share of Indian domestic animation is just a mere 0.6% in the overall animation and gaming industry throughout the world. Even though India has the majority of the share in outsourcing when it comes to the IT sector with 51% of the shares, it’s a sorry state when it comes to outsourcing for the animation and gaming industry with less than 10% of the shares.

The animation industry consists of custom animation development for T.V., DVD and theatrical movies. In India, there has been a cultural mindset regarding animation that it is meant for kids only which automatically restricts the viewership of the animation content.

Changing perception

But gradually this is changing and more people of different age groups are liking animated movies which, is a morale booster for the animation industry in India. Not just in movies, animation is also used in T.V. advertisements and the growing popularity of animated characters is likely to encourage the advertisement industry to use more and more animated characters as supposed to famous celebrities because apart from its popularity, animation is cheaper an d relate to the audience in a better manner regardless of culture or language. After the flop show of “Roadside Romeo” at the box office, Indian film makers lost interest in animated movies. But after the recent success of Hollywood flicks like “Ice Age 3”, “Monster vs. Alien” and “Avatar” which was a complete hybrid of live action and computer generated characters, Indian producers are taking another leap into the sea of animated movies.

The major issues that are still hindering the full scale growth of the industry in India are; lack of government support, tight budget with film producers not willing to spend more than 8-10 crore rupees on an animated movie resulting in poor picture and animation quality thus a flop at the box office and not to mention ‘piracy’ of DVDs which reduces the revenues of the producers and distributors. These problems arise due to weak IP regulations and ineffective enforcement.

Global gaming industry

The global gaming industry is growing at 21% p.a. and is a USD 40 billion industry and expected to be worth USD 59 Billion industry by 2013. The key systems involved in the gaming industry are; PC gaming, Mobile gaming, online gaming and console. Coming to the Indian market, the gaming industry in India is estimated to be a USD 239 Million industry and expected to be worth USD 1.3 Billion by the end of 2013. The gaming industry is a fragmented industry with players across value chain.

Amongst the various systems, mobile and online gaming are the largest contributors to gaming revenue whereas consoles are largest contributors to gaming consumer revenues. With the ever increasing ownership of mobile phones amongst Indians and availability of services like 3-G, more and more people download games in their phones through internet and thus increasing the demand for more games and this demand fosters the need for more innovative games.

High end online gaming

Alongside mobile gaming, with the growing internet penetration in several parts of India, more people now have access to high end online gaming. But the gaming industry too is facing several challenges in the Indian market like; lack of skilled manpower, the mentality of Indians towards gaming as people still consider gaming to be a means of entertainment and even worthless by some people and also the exposure of the Indian public to better and high standard games and the Indian games are exposed to better foreign games which people prefer.

As a whole, the animation and gaming industry is at a nascent stage in the world market and especially the Indian market, but holds a significant potential of growth both in terms of size and moving up the value chain. While the abysmally low (0.6%) share of worldwide animation and gaming market points towards the ability of the Indian market for domestic growth, the less than 10% share in the outsourcing market indicates the large source of growth from the outsourcing market. A few government incentives might also encourage the industry and help it to go a long way. [Category: Art And Entertainment]