Game development, especially for mobile platforms, has become a very strong arm of the technology industry. This occurs thanks to the advancement of smartphone technology and greater adoption of them by the population worldwide. The development of games for smartphones has resulted in much greater scalability for the gaming industry, given the presence of users on these devices.
Given billion-dollar revenues and high expansion power, even large platforms like Facebook and Instagram that focus on social interactions have started to develop mobile games. Thus, these companies that are part of the metaverse have entered this innovative trend to ensure high product differentiation. In addition to benefiting from engaging games to enhance their advertising strategies. It is nothing new that since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, digitalization processes and technological advances have gained years of acceleration in a short period of time. Especially with greater social isolation, the gaming segment underwent an expansion that gained even more speed.
Including India, from several surveys that have been conducted, it seems that it can be concluded that since the pandemic era, there has been an increase in the percentage of Indians who have an account on one of the online game applications, for example on the Kisma app, an online betting game application that is very popular among Indian gamers.
More and more Indians are getting involved in digital games
Source: vocal.media
Since March 2020, thousands of Indian men and women have become part of the digital games team. Given this, we can see the great power that the mobile games market has, with a tendency to grow even more with greater investment in this sector. Looking now at the profits, the games market in the world moves billions every year. The global gaming industry had revenues of US$196.8 billion and, according to projections from consultancy firm PwC, the sector is expected to reach global revenues of US$321 billion by 2026.
India, the country with the most population in the world, is one of the largest markets for any game developer. The presence of the Internet in the country with an increasing trend has encouraged a boom in online games that was never seen in the past. Today, globally, Indians are an important part of the world’s top game developers and it is one of the driving factors for the emergence of new games that adapt to Indian tastes. However, as a fairly traditional country, there are special sensations faced by players when they explore online games in India. This has something to do with games that tend to encourage players to bet. Yes, India is a country that deals with gambling “in shades of grey”.
Initially, online games were created to entertain people, but as technology developed, many elements were included in it. Now many such online games have been created, which promote betting and money-making activities. To stop these activities, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY) of the Government of India has given instructions to monitor all the rules and matters related to online games and has asked to get KYC done for the customers playing the games.
Source: medium.com
KYC of customers is necessary to play games
Today, it is mandatory for all online gaming users to get KYC (Know your customer) done to know their customers. The proposal states that there should be an office for gaming farms in India to ensure compliance with the rules as well as nodal officers.
According to the ministry, a self-regulatory framework should be introduced for the online gaming industry and it should be mandatory for online gamers to undergo KYC to create an account before playing the game. According to this rule, the SRO determines whether a game is permissible or not, and those online games that place bets or bets on the outcome will be prosecuted.
By doing KYC, the company can get information about its customers. The companies have to prepare a list of security measures to keep the money invested by the users in the games safe. Apart from this, users need to be informed about all the rules and risks that affect online game addiction. If anyone wants to play such online games then he will be asked for KYC before creating an account and his age should be above 18 years. Children under 18 years of age will not be able to play online games that involve financial risk.
The risk of being caught committing certain offenses is a thrill. Yes, you read that right! The risk of being caught committing certain violations when accessing online games in India is a sensation that gamers from other countries rarely experience. However, that has not discouraged the emergence of new players who are ready to take all the risks to explore online games for the Indian market and perhaps develop them to the next level.
