Pranab Mukherjee’s budget today gave gamers a reason to cheer. In the budget he has brought down the customs duty which now stands at around 12%.
It’s not clear what the final rate will be, but lower customs duty is definitely a welcome move. Also taxes on CDs have also been brought down, but considering how cheap they are it wouldn’t make a drastic difference to the price of a game.
A lot of gamers in India import games from sites such as Play Asia and many UK sites even to get the games in the first week of its release. It needs to be seen what effect it’ll have on the price of games in retail as distributors in India too import the game CDs (for consoles) rather than importing just a master CD. Exception would be PC games which are still published from within India after importing a master CD.
(Thanks to @FagunB for the heads up)
Balu is tech-Gaming reporter @DNA, Bangalore. He started Game Bashing as a personal blog, a few years back. He writes on PC gaming, Gaming scene in India apart from doing game reviews. Feel free to 
[...] But how exactly will that help gamers like you and I? Gamebashing originally reported this, noting that for those who are intent on playing a newly released game it would be really [...]
That’s great! But, I guess they wont reduce the price for quite sometime, because, well, they’ll reap in higher profits and then decide post-diwali or maybe even next year as the right time to reduce price.
@Reetesh
Ha ha ya also it won’t be applicable starting tomorrow =P It’ll take a few months, then when they realise that everyone’s importing rather than buying form them, they’ll reduce prices =)
Hi,
i would be glad if you could help me… i want to buy an xbox 360 Elite. Since it has not been launched in India; if i arrange one from the US as they are available at a cheaper price; would i face any problem in running games on it which are available here in india.
if i would face problem, then should i buy xbox arcade from india or what sould i do?
@nikhil
If you buy one from US, you’ll only be able to play NTSC games but only PAL games are available here. There are rumours of Elite launching in India, you can either wait for that or buy arcade. Just check forums like Consoul.in and indianvideogamer.com they might have a few offers running
Thank You for your reply.
I’m from Nagpur and I spoke to one of the console retailers here and he told me that If i arrange one from the US he can crack the console software and then i’ll be able to play games on it, as in pirated games. does this mean that i’ll be able to play PAL games as well. and also if you could suggest which is a better gaming console Xbox or PS3..
Looking forward for your reply..
@Once you crack it you can use PAL games, but you won’t be able to use Xbox Live which brings down the ‘Xbox Experience’. I would advice you against it, but it’s finally up to you
Alright.. I totally understand what you mean..If I arrange one from Singapore.. may be then i won’t have any problem… ?
Not sure Nikhil, I found this offer on Consoul pretty good actually http://is.gd/9t0Ny
Also check out on indianvideogamer.com forums there is this dealer called praashant he should also have some offer =)
HI,
please tell me if I would be able to play PS3, PSP, PS2, XBOX360 games purchased from UK on my respective consoles which I purchased in India.
Not all games will work you need to look at the region code on the console and get games which come for that region
Thanks…can you please let me know how to find games for my region.
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[...] recent budget I had written a post on how games would get cheaper in India thanks to a cut in customs duty, but looks like there was another provision in the bill where the [...]
hi balanarayan,
Thank you for clearing my doubts so far. I saw the offer you had suggested me .. it was good no doubt… but i’m looking forward for an elite system. i have ask my friend in singapore to get one for me.. and i shall receive in in the coming week. Really keem to get one. Will inform you wether i face any problem or not.
)