2009 was a great year for this blog. For god’s sake it was shifted to an independent domain this year. I’ve seen it grow from 10 visitors to a day to a few hundred over the year. I’ve also seen a lot of change happening in India gaming industry — for good!

PS3 became cheaper, launched slimmer version, and Microsoft is coming out with a few good schemes for Xbox360 after killing pro model and launching Arcade +1

Couple of India themed games released and flopped. Ghajini was pathetic, Desi-Adda was so-so. -1

EA shut down marketing division in India during recession, which meant they tied up for fewer events. -1

Sega titles started releasing in  India +1

UTV is working on 3 console games (AAA titles) through it’s studios based in UK +1

EA games available through Indiagame’s GoD service +1

BYOC goes national, WCG India continues to be a disappointment. +1-1

An Mumbaikar sets a Guinness record playing GTA for 40hrs straight! +1

More stores to buy games from in India Milestone, game distributors, launches online store. +1

Redington, who distribute EA’s Xbox360 games in India, raised prices beyond Rs3k mark.. importing FTW! -1

Alienware launches gaming PC in India

Overall +3 rating for gaming this year in India. So what can we expect this year. I love to speculate so here are my predictions for this year

1> Xbox 360 price drop (by a few thousands, perhaps a cheaper elite model)

2> Cheaper games for PC

3> Better deals for second hand games online

4> More and better organised tourneys (now that the market is coming back on track)

5> More gaming blogs to make this list longer =)

Do you have any adition to make to the list? Anything I missed? How was the year for you as a gamer?

“Dude.. Balu… where have you been? Why haven’t you been posting anything?” The couple of guys who read this blog but refuse to comment, asked me that in the past few days. The main reason I have been away from the blog, has been due to BYOC, which by the way, was a lot of fun. (I was tired after 24hours of standing around, talking, gaming etc etc)

Speaking of BYOC, Bangalore killed the concept of ‘Bring Your Own Computer’ altogether, even I’m to blame. Hardly anyone brought their own

computers along, from that I hope you understand that most people who registered, came for the tourneys.

While I was there at the event on and off, taking breaks to make a few pub owners richer, I noticed that most of the crowd hung around the CS and DoTa tourney leaving anyone who wasn’t part of these groups to ogle to Alienware laptops or play Quake 3 on the few other systems around. (at least that’s what I did) As it got dark, the crowd swindled and only about 80 of the 250 plus registered participants were around. Most of them were again DoTa CS clans who were taking part in the imbagamer tourney which was also being organized there. Nice arrangement overall.. The crowd was noisy and they kept at it despite an old security guard doing his own round of yelling (ehmm… at the gamers).

Being a participant driven event, it wasn’t required for organisers to hang around and see to it that everything’s organised in a civilized manner. It just happened. Though it was very well organized, there were a few complaints though. Around 8 teams registered for the CoD4 tournament, but by he time it started (10pm) only one team was left. Another team volunteered to participate later on, this confusion could have been avoided. The console space, set up by Consoul.in saw hardly any particpants and they decided to pack up pretty early. Can’t really blame them.

When I spoke to Ashish Gupta, Director of Xteme Gaming who organized the event, he said that every city’s been different. “Delhi’s big on LAN gaming, Mumbai had a good share of both, while in Bangalore it’s all for the tournaments. We’ll need a different strategy for each city. The turnout was good enough considering it’s being organised for the first time. Plus, we were really busy with other events as well and did not get enough time to promote this event,” he said.

Publicity aside, there a few things which could have made the event better.

1> The console section was in a corner, most gamers would have missed it as there was indication anywhere that such a section exists.

2> An separate space for LAN gaming and only for LAN gaming. The space allocated for LAN gaming was taken over by clans who were eager to practise.

3> DVD drives in systems. Not all of us carry around games in a pen drive

4> More goodies =D There were plently already to offer to winners and to a few lucky guys. But more’s always welcome.

5> Get some console manufacturers on board. Are you listening Microsoft, Sony?

6> There were lot of outstation participants, get more Bangaloreans to participate

Here’s a full list of winners as posted by Eports India

FIFA

1 – Akshay Sundhareswaran [Chennai]
2 – Sabeel [Bangalore]
3 – R.Kartik [Chennai]

Need for Speed Most Wanted
1 – Deb kumar
2 – Mohan S
3 – Aashik

CS tourney
1 – ETOS
2 – DsP
3 – Step

IMBAGAMER  DOTA tourney
1 – A clan that comprised of Vishak (Max), Kashif (spoon), Devilrules21, Str_I_ke, Varun_Nightwolf, RajtheImmortal (players from Chennai and Bangalore) came first at the BYOC.
2 – Spindix’s clan from Bangalore’s Zapak came second.
3 – D_Destructor’s clan from Hyderabad

Few pics from the event, courtesy of the organisers

We had earlier written about Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) LAN Party and gaming tournament which will be organised across the country. The event will be held on the same dates as announced earlier, so start packing your PCs or do some last min modding to add extra oomph to your rig. In the tournament section however, you will be able to use the systems provided by the organisers alone.

And all you console gamers, please don’t stay away, there will be a lot of console action as well at the BenQ Console Zone.

Meanwhile, Consoul might be arranging a few Xbox360 consoles which gamers can rent out at Bangalore. The organisers of BYOC will rent out PCs and monitors to gamers who find it inconvenient to carry their rigs along, but it’s not sure if it’s restricted to Delhi or if it’ll be available in all locations.

This is the first time the event’s being organised outside Delhi and we wish the organisers best of luck, as we need such events to really encourage gaming culture in India.

The venues and the dates for the event are as follows

Delhi : 7-8 Nov.

Venue: Global School, NBCC Plaza, Pushp Vihar, Saket.

Mumbai : 14-15 Nov.

Venue: Ajivasan Hall, Juhu Tara Road, Near SNDT College.

Bengaluru : 21 Nov.

Scared Heart School, Behing Good Shepard Auditorium, Museum Road.

Hyderabad : 28 Nov.

The games for the tournament

Counter Strike, DoTa, Call of Duty 4, NFS Most Wanted, Fifa09

See you there folks

PS: The organisers say there’s Rs10lakh worth of goodies for taking.. okay stop drooling

After becoming a big brand in Delhi with 8 successful events, Xtreme Gaming has decided to organise, Bring Your Own Computer (BYOC) in other Indian cities — Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad — as well.

For the event, the participants will have to to get their PCs and games along, and what follows is a 48 hours crazy gaming LAN-party, where you can frag, snipe and even exchange a few pleasantries. Those who find it difficult to carry their rigs around can rent one at the event, the rates will be announced later. BYOC is a blessing in disguise considering the cancellation of Vixture and shoddy organising of WCG in India.

Ashish Gupta, Director of Xtreme Gaming said that the console gamers are also welcome to come and join the LAN party, however no consoles will be available on rental basis. The tourney started off in 2007 in Delhi when 67 participants turned up. Since then they have organised one every quarter and in the last edition saw around 750 participants. They’re expecting at least 500 people to turn up in Bangalore and I hope they do.

Meanwhile, do carry your own games and carry the popular ones if you want to have some fun over LAN. That said, don’t restrict yourself to Counter Strike

So here are some basic details of the tournament

Delhi

Where: Global School of Management Science,

NBCC Plaza, Pushp Vihar, Sector – 5, Saket, New Delhi.

When: November 7 – 8, 2009

Mumbai

Where: Ajivasan Hall, Juhu Tara Road, Santacruz(W), Mumbai.

When: November 14 – 15, 2009

Bangalore

Where: — YET TO BE ANNOUNCED –

When: November 21, 2009

BYOC™ will be an action-packed weekend event featuring tournaments & some great events with awesome prizes.

Hyderabad

Where: — YET TO BE ANNOUNCED –

When: November 28, 2009

BYOC™ will be an action-packed weekend event featuring tournaments & some great events with awesome prizes.

Now if you’re all geared up you can hit the register page