Today I completed 3108 days in India, developing games professionally (getting paid for).
Eight and half years is a pretty short span if you really think of it, but starting when there was nothing (near ZERO) related to games development in India and reaching to a point where the likes of EAs, Game lofts, UBI Softs, VMCs, Activisions setting up shop and a new funding happening every day, it does seem like a lifetime.
In my opinion games industry in India is getting to the verge of being recognized as an *Industry and on path of becoming main stream. Still young but promising for sure.
Exciting times lie ahead and I’m convinced that India will become a strong contributor in the world of games development in its own unique way.
My 5 predictions (things that will happen in next 5-6 years in India Gaming Scene)
1. Government of India will recognize this sector and will associate us to either IT Industry or Entertainment Industry.
2. More than 20 new game development companies will start and more than 30 game studios will Tank.
3. Games Education will be recognized by universities and various game engineering programs will start to take shape.
4. Sony Playstation 2 will become even more popular and will be known for games based on Indian Content Games (some of them will be mind bogglingly absurd too)
5. Indian team will not be ranked in the bottom 3 in World Cyber Games at least once in next 6 years.
Unfortunately for me, I will not be around for next couple of years to have all the fun.
I have decided to move.
My new job is with Microsoft Corp. in Seattle (Redmond); I will now be working with Windows Game Experience Group, delivering the most compelling game experiences to Windows gamers.
On 30th of May I will be leaving India, but surely not be leaving my community (Indian Game Developers), I will continue to yap away making new friends and hopefully not many foes.
Cheers and have fun making games.
