#2 - Bans and Impact
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In the first edition of 0xPlay, we explored the pivots of Mediatonic’s ‘Fall Guys’ and lessons we can learn from them. Today we’re going to talk about bans & adverse impact they have on an ecosystem.
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Now bear in mind, this exploration will not be talking about the legality of regulations or if these orders were correct. We’re only going to explore the story, the return, the implications & impact such actions can have on the ecosystem.
The Play:
With Jio’s arrival into Telecom and the subsequent pricing war for customer acquistion. The world started to look at India as its next user-farm. The influx also created a massive opportunity for publishers to capitalise on the Indian market and drive user-adoption for their IPs. Over the years, the number of mobile gamers & revenue generated from users in India has grown at an impressive rate. (I’ll be exploring this phenomenal growth in a seperate post)
PUBG Mobile & other publisher IPs, leveraged this growth fantastically. The PUBGM ecosystem was thriving.
The mobile esports ecosystem in India was beginning to show promise, akin to counterparts in NA, EU & SEA. We had an influx of great talent, creators & orgs who were ready to leave India’s mark on the global esports scene.
However, in September 2020, Tencent’s (licensed from Krafton) mobile based battle-royale PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds Mobile popularly known as PUBGM hit a wall. Geopolitical tensions between India & China, prompted a wave of expulsion of applications that could be deployed for Indian users. The regulators threw a ban order for over 100 applications and that was it, a once burgeoning ecosystem, with a growing install base & massive popularity among the younger audience came to a dead-stop.
The situation was bleak, everyone was scrambling. The ban impacted not only the publisher (who had to wind up operations in India for the time-being). But also, the businesses & people who were part of the ecosystem.
The publisher laid out few communication pieces & had discussions with partners in the Indian ecosystem (tier-1 esports organisations, tournament organisers & partner brands).
PUBG Mobile wasn’t the only game hit with the ban, there were plenty of other publishers & IPs affected by this order.
We’re talking about game developers, support staff, esports organisations, both T1 & upcoming who would lose out on revenue from first-party & third-party events. Esports athletes who would soon be getting cut from orgs that can’t sustain the salaries, bootcamp and other expenses. Tournament organisers & broadcast studios, casters & analysts who were a dedicated part of the PUBGM ecosystem. Along with, content creators & streamers who’d lose out on revenue from esports orgs, tournament organisers & brands (sponsored content + media pieces).
The Return:
The regulatory impact was clear & while those who could, scrambled to find newer opportunities in other titles. Krafton (IP owner & publisher of PUBG) decided to revamp ties with Tencent in order to return to the market. They announced Battlegrounds Mobile India, which would be fine-tuned to respect regulations.
They’d also setup a local team who would oversee live-operations & grow the community. While the game is reskinned from PUBGM/New State, a similar strategy that was deployed to respect regulations in China (Game for Peace). The regulators had no qualms and gave it the greenlight for release.
Krafton’s playbook worked & the publisher entered the market once more. Krafton also decided to further strengthen ties with the Indian ecosystem and decided to invest over $100 million dollars in the Indian ecosystem.
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Plus another investment [undisclosed amount] to Lila Games in March 2022
With the return, the mobile esports ecosystem was also resuscitated once more, T1 orgs, tournament organisers & content creators had a fresh pipeline for generating revenue and sustaining themselves in the industry. For the publisher, install numbers started growing to earlier levels & revenue projections seemed positive.
With the first-party & third-party events cycle resuming, average prize-pools increased & esports athletes found a great platform to showcase India’s strength.
We even had the chance to witness India’s first televised main-stream broadcast for an esports event. BGMI Masters Series which had phenomenal viewership metrics [over 100million impressions, with 12.3 million on television alone]. BGMI Masters Series would beat out mainstream sporting events like Australian Open in viewership numbers.
Mainstream adoption would mark a cultural shift in how gaming would be perceived in the country.
This marked an historic event for Indian esports industry. With wider adoption, we’d also see more brands generating sponsorship interest which would naturally translate into more revenue for the ecosystem & further drive growth. It’s not just the esports industry that would benefit from this, but gaming industry as a whole. With more people becoming interested in exploring games as a career, we’d also see more studios & publishers establishing themselves in India.
The euphoria however, was short-lived. On the cusp of this historic event, BGMI was once again banned.
The Impact:
As we talked about earlier, we’re not going to explore the regulations & who ran afoul of it. However, we do have to take a look at the impact these orders have on the ecosystem as a whole. The lives, businesses & potential growth of an industry that gets hampered.
Indian games industry has been growing, we’re seeing more developers and publishers establish themselves in India. We’re seeing great IPs & local talent emerge on the global stage. We’re seeing major investments in the sector & additionally we’re at a stage where India could even be a major player in the web3 ecosystem.
In light of these developments, we have to enquire:
While regulations are a necessity to safeguard consumers, we have to understand the perverse impact they can have on a countries perception & growth of the industry.
Indian gaming industry has come a long way in the past two-decades. We’ve seen phenomenal growth in terms of revenue, adoption & are seeing fantastic IPs being developed by Indian developers.
The last thing we need, is to hamper the growth & future prospects due to shortsightedness. Instead, lets aim to make a framework to incentivise, grow & provide the necessary infrastructure to empower the industry. If other Governments can leverage policies to grow their games industry, why can’t we?
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