Synopsis
Chinese tech giant Tencent is boosting India's gaming sector through strategic partnerships with SEPC and GDAI. The company aims to bring world-class gaming experiences to India while nurturing local developer talent and global expansion opportunities for Indian studios. This initiative aligns with India's growing AVGC sector needs.Listen to this article in summarized format
“Our goal in India is two-pronged: bringing world-class gaming experiences to Indian players, while simultaneously building the developer and talent ecosystem,” Yong-yi Zhu, vice president of business operations, strategy and compliance at Tencent Games Global, said in a media briefing in New Delhi.
The Shenzhen-based company has unveiled Honor of Kings in an attempt to bring a globally successful intellectual property to India, with more titles in the pipeline, he added.
Tencent is a leading name in the gaming sector and has stakes in US companies Epic Games and Supercell.
"India is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing gaming markets, not just by user numbers, but by the depth of its developer talent and creative potential," Danny Marti, head of global public affairs and policy at Tencent, said.
Abhay Sinha, director general of SEPC, said the partnership combines the council’s export mandate with Tencent’s global distribution platform to help Indian studios scale up internationally.
The company also signed a separate three-year MoU with the Game Developer Association of India (GDAI), which represents India’s game development community through 15 state chapters.
The partnership with GDAI will focus on building India’s game development pipeline from the ground up, the company said.
It includes four key workstreams, a National Game Jam to engage over 10,000 students annually, a Train-the-Trainer programme to create 20 industry-aligned trainers, a studio incubation programme for at least 10 studios, and participation at the India Game Developer Conference, the media release said.
The partnership comes at a time when India’s animation, visual effects, gaming, and comics (AVGC) sector is projected to require 2 million skilled professionals by 2030.
In the Union Budget, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced support for the Indian Institute of Creative Technologies (IICT) to roll out a nationwide lab network aimed at strengthening India’s AVGC ecosystem and accelerating job creation.
