“We are looking to form a video games industry-specific self-regulatory organisation, which hopefully, should get recognized by the government of India,” Harish C. informed MediaNama in an exclusive interaction, while spelling out various regulatory issues the industry is concerned with. Harish is the Founder of Outlier Games, one of the 45 video games companies that wrote to the Indian government earlier this week, requesting regulatory distinction from online real money games.
The urge to carve out a separate regulatory turf for video games (and Esports) comes after multiple policies on ‘online gaming’ that seemingly lumped the industries with online real money games. For example, the GST Council recently announced its intent to tax online gaming at par with gambling at 28%. While the government has since clarified that the move only impacts online games involving wagering, like real money games, it’s been painted by some as a body blow to the online gaming industry as a whole.
Harish, along with other video game studios, also plans to speak with policymakers behind the Indian government’s recent Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming, Comics, and Extended Reality (AVGC) report in September, which he believed under-represented policies to boost the video games sector. In this interview, he explains why that is—and what the ‘real’ gaming industry in India wants from government regulation.
Watch the full interview here:
Also Read:
- Primary Goal Of 400 Million Indian Video Gamers Is ‘Entertainment’, Not Making Money: Esports Fed On Gaming GST Hike
- Government Should Clearly Differentiate ‘Online Games’ From E-Sports: E-Sports Players
- Why The Gaming Industry Wants Regulatory Distinction Between Video Games And Real Money Games
Note: this article was updated at 1:43 pm on 29/7/23 following editorial inputs.
