Post 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 government made it practically impossible for any Indian to pay and download games. According to this story in Business Line, Indians will need to pay an excise duty of 10% while downloading any sort of application to a mobile phone or a PC, from a foreign supplier or a website.
This makes life difficult for a lot of gamers who decide to download legitimate copies of the games from services like Steam and also for console gamers, who download games from services such as Xbox Live and PlayStation Network. According to the story in Business Line, non-payment could have sever implications:
Mr N.R. Badrinath, a partner with a consulting firm Accretive Business Consulting, told Business Line that in case of downloads made available by foreign suppliers, under the ‘reverse charge principle’ the person downloading such software in India would need to pay the service tax at 10.3 per cent. This means that even an individual downloading software for personal use would need to pay the service tax, seek registration under the service tax provisions and also file the statutory returns thereafter. Non-compliance with the provisions could trigger interest and penalty. “This amendment brought in with respect to information technology software services will create a lot of hardships,” Mr Badrinath said.
Now as this post in Medianama suggests, it is ridiculous to expect users to register just because they want to file service tax.
Under this reverse charge clause, individual users will apparently have to register for the service tax provisions and file the statutory returns for every piece of software they buy online, even for personal use. To top it off, this is applicable for every individual purchase one makes. So if you wanted to upgrade your blog’s theme and bought one, you would automatically have to go through the process of registering and filing 10.3% service tax on it!
Preethi at Medianama is right when she says that India does not care about ecommerce, for not only do gamers miss out an option to download games at a cheaper rate than it is in stores, this law will just add to the confusion which was created after govt made it mandatory for all credit card transactions online to have a special pin. Services like Xbox Live still hasn’t integrated this featured making the process of buying live points, to buy games a challenge in itself. Till now only software which were downloaded for commercial purposes were taxed but post this bud(I don’t)get, we ‘previlaged citizens’ will have to pass through more red tape and babugiri, just because we wanted instant access to a game. The government has done a big disservice to its people by coming up with such irrational measures which’ll in no way help anyone (except may be bring down the fiscal deficit; which according to me should have been handled differently). So this makes me say that the Indian government has truely eared it… not bournville.. but the hate of netizens for killing off ecommerce (and gaming) industry in India right at it’s infancy.
Implications
If government is very strict about implementing it’s laws, it needs to be seen how they’ll monitor transactions online. Paypal went through a difficult phase in India recently and finally now Indians will need to make special licenses to make transactions using the service. So in case they DO start forcing this down users throat, we’ll see a spike in piracy, but thankfully it may not affect services such as game4u and Consoul where though the purchase is made online, the products are delivered via courier. Let’s hope that services like Steam and Live don’t actually get blocked in India, knowing Indian government they are capable of doing that too.
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.
Following launch of a gaming store by competitor E-xpress, Milestone has launched one in Mumbai — called game4u after their online gaming site. According to GameGuru, “the store is more about delivering an interactive entertainment experience to the customer.”
The store has a special Game4u Girls section and an area where gamers can try out Rock Band kit. The store also has a special blu-ray section if you’re into watching movies in HD (ehmm.. on your PS3). Game4uGirls is a section comprising of games which they think appeals to girls such as Hannah Montana, Littlest Pet Shop etc, there are also a few Wii games in this section. The store will also let gamers trade in older games for new ones according to IVG, but it needs to be seen what kind of prices they’ll offer. If they offer good prices people might prefer such stores where they get money instantly instead of forums.
We had earlier written about Milestone’s plans to open a store when they were hiring people through their blog.
The store launch leaves e-xpress with a question if they should be opening an online store or not. Milestone has both online and offline covered under the game4u branding and not the ball’s in e-xpress’s court to make their move.
News on the competition aside I’m looking forward to console manufacturers tying up with these stores to bring out special super-discounted consoles. such a move will not only give these some publicity, but’ll also do some good for gaming in India which has growing at a slow rate.
If any of you want to check it out, it’s at Mega Mall, Oshiwara (psst do let us know what you think about it )
Saltmarch Media, the same group who had organised Indian Developer Summit is organising Indian Game Developer Summit in Bangalore, on Feb 27 (this weekend). The one day event will see discussions on topics ranging from game development, marketing, team-management among others.
You can check out the schedule here, the talks I’m looking forward to the most are:
Technology And Market Trends In The PC Game Industry by Keita Iida, part of NVIDIA’s Content & Technology organization since 2001
Bootstrapping for Mobile Game Development in India by Krishna Chaitanya Pediredla, founder and managing partner of Drona Labs, which focuses on developing games and applications for the Apple Iphone.
Quality Asset Creation & Sound As A Storyteller by Varun Nair, who has been a part of sound industry for the past four and half years and has dabbled in most areas of sound during this period.
Stretching Torque to Duplicate a Commercial AAA Game Engine in Ghajini by Imran Khan, VP Technology at FXLabs.
Preparing for the Great Indian Social Gaming Rush by Sumit Gupta, CEO and Founder of BitRhymes, a social gaming company.
Open Source for Your Game Development by Kinshuk Sunil, an indie game developer from New Delhi and Yadu Rajiv, an indie game developer from Trivandrum.
The Creative Core Team by Jithin Rao, a producer at Ubisoft Pune, the game publisher Ubisoft’s first Indian studio.
Now the list is cool if not for the last two which clash, hmm I guess I’ll have to figure out a way to attend both. In case you’re interested, you can register here and do ping me if you’re around. You’ll find all my contact info here.
Gameshastra, the Hyderabad-based company which developed Desi Adda, will make their debut on Sony’s PlayStation Store, with the game ‘Cart Kings’ making them the first Indian company to do so. This move boosts GameShastra’s role as one of Sony’s major partner in India.
The relationship encompasses innovation and delivery of new downloadable games by GameShastra to Sony consumers worldwide which include Desi Adda for PlayStation2 , PSP and Eklavya (under development) for PlayStation 3 platform.
The company is also expanding their studio in Hyderabad, in particularly their development team of designers, artists, animators, developers and QA specialists. It has also established a new game design studio in Hyderabad to accelerate this growth plan and cater to the growing demand of its services worldwide. This facility has the capacity to accommodate 1000+ associates – making it one of the largest Game Studios in South Asia.
With the launch it’s clear that Gameshastra and Sony are targetting Indian diaspora rather than resident Indians as Playstation Store is not accessible in India by default (there are work arounds). The launch could also mean that Sony will open up their stores in India sooner or later considering the competition they’re facing from Microsoft despite slashing down price of PS3.
I wouldn’t be surprised if Sony starts bundling Gameshastra’s under-development game, Eklavya, along with PS3 when it launches. Sony is already bundling Desi Adda and Human Boy Warrior with PS2 in India.
..Well almost. Sheridian College of Canada has developed a real-time auto-stereoscopic 3D game called, IC3D, which’ll be showcased at the Ontario House Pavilion at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games.
Developed in collaboration with Toronto-based company Spatial View, the Sheridan IC3D Game is an interactive real-time application where players use BlackBerry smartphones as game controllers to assemble puzzles featuring some of Ontario’s most popular tourist attractions.
Visitors to the Ontario House Pavilion will play the puzzle game featuring 20 of Ontario’s landmark attractions, displayed as ‘icicons’, on 46” Spatial View auto-stereoscopic 3D screens. The pieces of each attraction, or ‘icicon’, appear scattered on a frozen 3D landscape. Up to five players work collaboratively to assemble the ‘icicons’, each using a BlackBerry smartphone. Once complete, a multimedia presentation of the attraction is displayed on each player’s device.
There is no mention of the cost involved to develop such games and screens for mass consumption, but the technology with worth a look. As of now gamers can try out Nvidia’s 3D gaming kit (a review of which will be up this weekend) along with special Samsung monitors for 3D experience.
Nvidia’s 3D gaming kit is brillaint for the gamer, but an on looker will be able to see only blurry visuals on-screen without the glasses, which might limit it’s use to individuals and keep it away from living rooms.
The Sheridan 3D Game was created by Sheridan’s Visualization Design Institute (VDI), an applied research unit with established expertise in the field of computer visualization and specializing in deploying game technologies in 3D environments. A team of students from the college’s Applied Computing and Engineering Sciences School worked with VDI staff to take this application from concept to finished product.
Founded in 2004, Spatial View is a leading developer of 3D image processing and display technologies. The company’s vision is to make 3D more accessible, affordable and versatile opening up 3D to a broader market, including mobile and personal computers. Spatial View’s unique technology allows users to view 3D content in high quality on a variety of platforms without the need for 3D glasses.
Spatial View, had in the past developed glasses-free 3D music video available for the iPhone for the 52nd annual Grammy Awards. UVPH designed and directed the video entitled “Drown in the Now” for The Crystal Method.
It was past mid night and I was getting tired of the vague storyline, but not of the cover-aim-fire-kill ritual. This along with my modified guns had kept me and my partner alive in China which — in the game — is under siege by a militant group.
Army of Two: The 40th Day, sequel to Army of Two is a co-op campaign which throws you into China and expects you to stay alive despite being out numbered and auto-gunned. But hey it’s the world of gaming where anything is possible, provided you have the guts and the wits. So if you think you got it, pick up your Xbox360 controller and play this game alone or with a friend on co-op.
Where the game really pulls a punch is with the action sequences. The fights along crumbling walls, falling buildings and treacherous streets is one great ride, but the biggest let down is the storyline or the abscence of one, rather. That said, the lacklustre storyline is complimented by ‘morality moments’ where you get to make a decisions on behalf of both the players and these decisions have a consequence which you get to see immediately. You can either be a goody-goody and do the most righteous thing, or be a money-hungry killer and follow orders of the organisation who employs you without a second thought. Either way remember that you’re being judged.
The AI can be really cheeky and can bust your out of your cover at times and really weak otherwise. Boss fights which involve juggernaut like enemies carrying a flamethrower or gatling gun are difficult till you figure out that things are not as complicated as they might seem to be. In short you’ll make it, provided you think beyond headshots. And yes, once you kill them do pick up their guns as they cannot be purchased anywhere in the game. Speaking of weapons, they are gorgeous, drool worthy, provided you are not a miser and spend all the money you earn and steal in the game on upgrades. My best buy was a diamond encrusted grenade. If you buy it and plan to use it, remember to take cover as diamond cuts to anything and everything!
Playing it in co-op is definitely more exciting than depending on an AI partner, because sometimes four, one-word instructions are not enough to build a good strategy.
The cover system used in the game is simply superb though the new camera system might take a bit getting used to. You need to flip between camera mounted on left shoulder to camera mounted on right shoulder depending on which side you’re taking cover. Personally, I had a few issues initially, but after suffering a few unpleasant deaths with bullets on my rear I figured it out.
The game is a good enough sequel but towards the end you feel that it could have been better. The game looks great, plays great, and will leave you wanting for more.
We had written earlier about how game4u, an initiative by Milestone Interactive (game distributors) who were planning to launch a retail outlet for selling games and accessories. Looks like someone else has beat them to it — as a new retail chain called ‘Games the Shop’ has been launched in R-city mall in Mumbai and according to MCV,
The owners plan to open an additional 15 stores over the coming year, all of which will stock both modern formats such as Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii as well as handheld and older consoles like the PS2.
Other promised in-store features include demo pods, specialist advisors and both chart and discount titles.
Sounds like a good deal except for the fact that the post doesn’t mention the name of the company, but it does mention Anand Khemani to be the director of the chain. Anand Khemani, for the record, is the CEO of e-xpress interactive, one to the top game distributors in the country. So now we finally have a strong competition between distributors. When will Milestone launch their store? I hope they don’t delay much for their own good.
Making a game based on a movie is not new these days.The latest entry, Avatar from Ubisoft, brings Cameron’s world of Pandora to consoles and PCs far and wide with its game take on the fictional world of Pandora.
Avatar-The game, does not follow the same story as the movie. The game sets long before the events that take place in the movie. The mining corporation is beginning to turn Pandora into a mining colony. You can decide whether to align yourself with the big blue tree-huggers or the rainforest-burning capitalists. Skills are pretty similar between the two sides, though taking the latter side looks much cooler here to me.
The stuff looks quite impressive as of now and the level of detail of the jungle and the creature animations are of extremely high standard. Ubisoft has even got a stereoscopic version of the game which if you have the 3D compatible gadgets, it enhances the gameplay experience.
You can customise more than sixty weapons available in the game, and choose your own unique skills for each clan. A suite of pilotable vehicles and animals allow gamers to expand the battleground in single-player or online multiplayer as they fight to determine the future of Pandora. Here’s the trailer. Check the space again for the full game review soon.
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