Nazara Technologies' and the Future of Gaming in India

It has recently been confirmed that Nazara Technologies, the Mumbai-based mobile games developer that raked in revenues of over $86 million last year, has acquired 27.42% in the tech upstart CrimzonCode.

CrimzonCode, as you may already know, is the owner of one of the most popular mobile quiz games in India, TopQuiz, which has an average of 500,000 users across the country and a dedicated active user base of about 100,000 per month, making it by far the most popular real-money quiz game in the world's second-most populous country.

The recent acquisition of a stake in what was a relatively small fish in India's tech ecosystem has sent shock-waves reverberating through the sector, as pundits begin to analyse what such a heavy investment and high-level endorsement spells out for the future of the country's burgeoning mobile gaming scene.

Let's take a look at what Narara Technologies decision could mean for the future of the sector, and look at how similar developments across the country indicate a bold new direction for gaming in India.

As mentioned, TopQuiz is a mobile quiz game in which players answer questions on a range of categories from general trivia and contemporary politics to culture and science, with the opportunity to have real money paid directly into their bank accounts. Real-prize quiz games are popular across the world, as people love to flex their intellectual muscles and put their knowledge to the test, with the chance to actually earn a few bucks making it all the sweeter.

TopQuiz is certainly an emerging platform, being only available on Android at the moment and having quite a small cohort of players until very recently, when it was picked up and published by the punchy start-up CrimzonCode. It started drawing more and more players from across India's 29 states. Prizes range from just a few rupees to much bigger potential payouts, and the explosive increase in regular players is a testament to the growing popularity of these types of platforms within the hugely lucrative Indian market.

CrimzonCode reports that the game is most popular in second and third-tier cities like Agra and Kochi as opposed to the bigger first-tier cities like Mumbai and Delhi. With second-tier cities often being used as a growth indicator by start-ups and emerging sectors, Nazara's keenness to invest heavily and quickly suggests that the potential for massive expansion of the game, and similar ones like it, is significant.

Although mobile quiz games seem like a fairly innocuous genre of gaming, the rise in popularity is strongly linked to the history of gaming and gaming law in India since independence and before.

Various kinds of gaming where money is involved has been strictly regulated across the country since as far back as the 19th century and, although each of the 29 states have devolved powers to determine gaming laws within their boundaries, the general consensus is one of prohibition.

This is changing fast, with states such as Goa and Sikkim already allowing for casinos to be operated within their territories and both online and mobile gaming in India becoming more relaxed in recent years. Across the country as a whole, much of current gaming law stems from cultural trends, with the traditional and hugely-popular card game rummy being permitted to a certain extent all over India. While other games in both digital and physical format are more heavily restricted, rummy is more widely permitted due to a long cultural heritage that goes back to the 1950s, when a law was brought in to protect the game and give it special status.

The liberalisation of gaming laws continues apace, in a direction which is responsible for the increased attractiveness of mobile games like TopQuiz.

A key stipulation for the legality of any real-money games is that a certain, narrowly defined definition of skill must be required to play the game, as opposed to luck, which means that, in the eyes of the law, the money is being "earned" in a more conventional way. This legal convention has allowed platforms like TopQuiz to flourish and it is opening up the consumer market of 1.2 billion people to innovative new types of gaming.

As you can guess, the future looks optimistic for the gaming sector, with more recent developments highlighting the growth potential for the Indian market. A telling example is the recent Asian Poker Tour partnering up with high-profile Indian online poker site Badshaah Gaming, allowing Indian players to participate in games beyond their borders and get involved in global competitions. The high-profile developments of the past couple of months clearly indicate that online gaming is on track to reach a new zenith in India, as the needs of consumers are recognised and various forms of gaming become more permitted and more popular in return.