Quentin Staes-Polet is the CEO and co-founder of Kreeda Games, one of the first Indian internet companies dedicated to massively multiplayer online gaming (MMOG). The company received its first round of funding in March 2007 from US based IDG Ventures and Japan's Softbank.
Kreeda's flagship Bollywood music and dance game Dance Mela (The Carnival of Dance) recently made it to the Changemakers gaming honours and according to Quentin, it managed to do so because it successfully merged fitness and entertainment into a deeply localized game for India.
In an interview with Indiantelevision.com's Arcopol Chaudhuri, Quentin talks about the opportunities, challenges and gives his perspective on the larger gaming industry in India, which is beginning to gradually stand-up on its own feet.
Excerpts:
Your first round of funding took place in March. When is the next round likely to take place? |
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The gaming industry in India is still at a nascent stage. How is Kreeda combating alternate entertainment options like TV and cinema in this phase? |
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What's the current size of the current gaming industry in India? But frankly, I wouldn't bet on any of the numbers. Because a lot of these numbers are part of revenues paid to companies outside India. |
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Has the gaming industry woken up to in-game advertising? |
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What are the advantages it offers to advertisers compared to conventional mediums? |
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What about measurability? How is Dance Mela a valuable proposition for an advertiser? |
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There's a notion that a gamer is too immersed in the game to actually notice brands in the background? |
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What revenue model is likely to work in a market like India? |
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What offerings has Kreeda lined up, post Dance Mela? |
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How challenging was it to localize Dance Mela? |
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So is that what your strategy going to be from now on? Licensing them from abroad or developing games in-house? |
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Why aren't you developing games in-house? |
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How much are existing international gaming majors like EA a challenge to your business in India? The gaming majors are not a challenge at all. They cater to a hardcore gaming audience - people whom we at Kreeda are not after. Of course, we would love it if they played Dance mela as well, but then to be a successful gaming company in India, you need to think 100 times that number. You compare that to the projected $200 million and you think it's not going to happen. Look at China - the country jumped from zero to $1.5 billion in a period of seven years. In 1999-2000, China was no different than India in terms of internet connectivity and PC penetration, amongst other things. |
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So what according to you is going to be a compelling reason for people to take up gaming? |
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What's the audience strategy for Kreeda right now - converting existing gaming population to Dance Mela or wooing a fresh audience base? |
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Which genre is going to be the catalyst for growth in this sector - mobile, console, PC, online gaming? |
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How much have perceptions towards gaming been a challenge in India? Violent actions packed games are a strict no-no, if academic opinion is to be believed? |
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What are these issues? |
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And how is Kreeda addressing these issues? |
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What hurdles are you facing while you do this? |
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Is the market too fragmented right now? The scene is very fragmented. In India, to reach your game to all the malls in the country there is no single channel distributor. Plus there are transaction issues involved like octroi and transportation which add to the costs of an emerging retail distribution scene for gaming. However, we are hopeful that it will stabilize very soon. It's not just our problem, even majors like Sony, Microsoft and Apple are facing similar issues for selling their boxes and iPods in India. |
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What is Kreeda's presence across shelves in India? Currently we are in about 4,000 retail stores and 2000 internet cafes across the country. |
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What payment mechanisms are you offering users? |
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How are you promoting Dance Mela? |
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How does a start-up company like Kreeda see the inroads of Reliance's Zapak in the gaming market? Are they creating an over-powering presence? |
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If you were to do a SWOT analysis, how would the gaming sector look like? As for threats, fragmentation is definitely there. The government might also come up with a regulatory policy when the industry scales up. |