With inputs from Apurva Chaudhary
Sony will begin the manufacturing of PS3 games in India, Game Bolt reported. Speaking to Medianama, Atirindriya Bose, Country Manager, Sony Games India said that this process would begin with games published by Sony. Once the process of manufacturing stabilises, they intend to manufacture third party games as well. Some notes from our conversation with Bose:
– Impact on manufacturing cost: Sony will be re-tuning the blue ray replication plant in India to also manufacture the PS3 games by adding another line for games. Further, the master stamper will be imported to India to make the games locally. This is likely to reduce the manufacturing cost and the price paid by consumers. Import duties and taxes of 34-35% of the MRP will also be avoided.
– Plans for this summer: Sony intends to launch India editions of 20+ games, this summer, all priced below Rs 1000. Currently, most of the newer games are Sony PS3 are priced above Rs 2000, which is not really economical for most gamers in India. Typically, they resort to jailbreaking their PS3 so as to buy cheap pirated games or subscribe to PlayStation Plus, a yearly games subscription service by Sony.
Sony intends to first focus on the economy range of games. The list of games to be manufactured locally in the first wave are God of War Collection up to God of War III, Kill Zone III, Resistance III, Uncharted II and Heavy Rain, all focused on core gamers. They also plan to release Sports Champion and The Fight targeting families. Note that most of the games listed here are really old releases, Uncharted II was released in 2009 and would have been played by many PS3 users in India by now. If anything, Sony Should concentrate on bringing newer games.
– Migration to PS3: Bose further added that Sony games has been seeing migrations from PS2 to PS3 platform in India. Sony claims that its games have grown by 12% YoY and believes PS3 and PSP to be their growth drivers in India. While PS3 and PSP grew at 25%+ in the last year, PS2 was more or less static owing to the lack of new game on the platform.
Note that PS2 console was launched in 2000 and hence sees no new games on the platform. PS3 as well isn’t a new console by that standards, it was launched in 2006 making it 7 year old console. However, Sony expected to launch a successor to PS3, PlayStation 4 by this year end. Play Station’s competition Xbox is also expected to come out with a new edition of its gaming console. It’s not clear whether Sony also plans to launch India edition of games for PS4 when the console launches later this year. This could boost PS4 sales in India, as the games available would be priced cheaper. We have contacted Sony, and would update the article once we receive a response. Sony also faces competition from Nintendo Wii, however we believe it hasn’t really caught up in the Indian market.
Besides these, there’s a newer range of Android based gaming consoles stating to appear in the market – Crowdfunded Kickstarter project, Ouya is expected to launch its Android console in June 2013. Casual gamers have already shifted to games on Tablets and smartphones.
