Xbox has been focusing on its expansion into Asian markets for a while now and it’s not about to stop since after a successful entry into the Japanese market, India is now proving to be a market interesting for the Redmond firm.
Microsoft wants to offer maximum possibilities to Indian developers
In this expansion strategy, Microsoft obviously intends to target new potential consumers, but this also involves supporting and promoting local creators, in this case Indian creators. Our GamesIndustry.biz colleagues sat down with Arjun Varma, head of Xbox’s new GXI (Global Expansion Incubator) team, at IGDC (India Game Developers Conference) 2022 in Hyderabad. Varma has spoken on many topics.
“The idea behind GXI is to engage and connect with the local developer community in India. We want to support and enable this ecosystem to find success. We are looking at how we can get these titles released on Xbox in addition to other platforms. The gaming industry has exploded in recent years and India is a very interesting market for us. There’s a lot of cool content coming out and we want to build on the potential we see. »
As for the creators themselves, Xbox wants to give independent developers “the same tools and resources that Microsoft’s largest partners have access to.” These developments would also go through the establishment of partnerships between Xbox and Indian studios.
“Our tools will put them on a level playing field – Xbox Live experiences, devkits, all of it.
We are also exploring how we can leverage the program [email protected] for Indian indie developers. Once you sign in, you immediately get around $500 in free Azure credit. And when they start their journey, they’ll have the chance to earn up to $5,000 in free Azure credits. This will help lower the barrier of creating games.”
Indian creators have no shortage of innovative ideas for video games
What Arjun Varma emphasizes in particular are the ideas and abilities of Indian designers. Part of his job is to connect with studios of different sizes and here’s what he has to say about it:
“All I do is meet with developers to discuss their strengths and shortcomings. This gives us the opportunity to support them as Xbox. From what I’ve seen, the type of content being developed across genres is truly impressive. They have a lot of potential in terms of storytelling and art style. These games would do really well if given the chance. »
India remains to this day a market mainly focused on mobile (700 million players by 2025) but the console sector is gradually developing. According to Varma, the use of cross-platform tools is one of the keys to the development of Xbox and more widely of video games in India.
“We ask these developers to include mechanisms that allow easy porting to or from consoles and PCs. The cross-platform approach is the right solution for the Indian market. We encourage it and I’ve seen mobile developers include mechanisms that simplify the porting process to consoles and PC. »
During the IGDC, Arjun Varma and his GXI team also presented the expectations of[email protected] and gave invaluable advice to Indian creators from a gameplay, communication and marketing point of view.
“A lot of free-to-play titles launch in January, which means the period between February and July is a better window for indie titles. August tends to be busier in terms of indie game releases, especially with the summer sales. From September to November, it is the AAA season, followed by the end-of-year sales which greatly encourage purchases of the latter. »
Overall, Arjin Varma is rather optimistic about the future of Xbox in the Indian market. With the massive development of cloud gaming technologies, the democratization of 5G and VR, new opportunities are constantly being offered to creators around the world, allowing them to express their talents and skills to players.
“It’s definitely one of the best areas to be in right now. As someone who’s worked at Microsoft and Meta as well, there are so many different areas to explore.
We will only get bigger from now on, especially in a market like India. Try to discover your area of interest in games. Whatever interests you, dive in and make sure you have a structure in place to start your journey off right. Learn a bit about how others have gone about achieving similar goals. Contact the right people for mentorship. My team would love to guide young people on how they can start their game developer story.”
While significant increases in the price of Xbox consoles were announced in India at the very beginning of 2023 by Microsoft, it seems that India is one of the next countries targeted by the Redmond firm in the years to come. .
