Why Are Games and Consoles in India So Expensive, and Can the Indian Government Help the Gaming Community
Is regional pricing the solution or something else?
Editor's Note: IGN India spoke directly with Lakshya Digital Founder Manvendra Shukul for this interview. This feature story is among a five-part interview series.
Video gaming is considered a luxurious hobby, especially given the price of the hardware and individual games in India. The price of a decent gaming PC with a capable Nvidia GPU and even a gaming laptop is so high that it takes a sizable investment. Even when gamers (or their parents) decide to spend this large amount of money, they look at a gaming system as something that they can use for multiple years.
Moving on to consoles, things are not that different, even if they are somewhat affordable compared to gaming PCs or laptops. The rather expensive pricing of games still makes PlayStation and Xbox consoles aspirational for most gamers.
Given that pricing across the industry is one of the primary hurdles for Indian gamers, we discussed regional pricing of games and pricey gaming hardware in India with Manvendra Shukul, the founder of Lakshay Digital. For those unfamiliar, Lakshay Digital is a support studio that has worked on several big AAA titles, such as Baldur’s Gate 3, Alan Wake 2, Starfield, Forspoken, and many more.
Regional Pricing of Games and Hardware in India
As part of the discussion, Shukul shared that regional pricing of games is typically influenced by the taxation set by the government. This is why games and hardware are more expensive in India than in other countries such as the US. He also believes there is not much the government can do since the market is not “big enough” to “take notice.” Shukul went on to explain that the high taxes set the hardware prices at the US dollar level.
While some platforms have specific games that adhere to decent regional pricing, most games are priced at the level of the US dollar or maybe even higher. Shukul mentioned that the “industry has been talking about this forever”, but there has not yet been a “tipping point” for things to change.
Manvendra believes it is difficult for the market to grow at the current prices. He compared the situation to the telecom industry, where no one was buying a telephone due to its expensive price. Things only changed when the telecom prices were reduced. He noted that a similar pathway is required for the video game industry in India.
Nothing Will Change in Taxation ‘Unless the Industry Becomes Big’
Shukul added that there may be an eventual realisation to make things affordable across the industry. But how and when this will happen is anyone’s guess. He does feel that everyone is looking up “to the government to do something about it, but they can’t do anything about it besides the taxes.” As we noted above, the industry needs to become big for things to change on the taxation front, as per Shukul.
The situation sounds like a vicious loop where one solution depends on the other. At current prices, most cannot afford PC and console gaming. This also partly explains why mobile gaming is so big in India since the hardware is much more accessible for Indians. If the industry cannot grow at this price and the government does not reduce taxation, it will likely continue to stay this way.
There is also the side of the publishers, where the government may take notice if big industry players such as EA, Sony, Bandai Namco, Microsoft, Activision, and the like begin prioritising the Indian market. IGN India believes that such international focus on the Indian market and conversations with the government could change the taxation equation for everyone. However, all of this is wishful thinking at this point, given the state of regional pricing, frequent price hikes, and lack of priority for India on the global scale. For now, India has firmly established itself as a mobile games market.
