“Indians’ outlook towards ‘PC Gaming’ is changing”

 It is found that the Indian gaming industry has started spreading its influence across platforms, evolved new business models and emerged as the prominent sunrise industry in the country. Introduction of new technologies in the gaming circuit and investments from private equity funds have been the major reasons for the growth of the Indian gaming industry. PC makers always try to offer something exciting for them and recently AMDhas given a big treat to them in the form of new and improved processors. AMD has recently introduced a new range of FirePro W-series professional graphic cards – W8100 and W9100, designed for desktop workstations and personal supercomputers featuring active cooling for flexible deployment in a wide variety of systems.  While the AMD Radeon R9 285 Series is the pinnacle of price/performance gaming hardware at 2560X1440p delivering real-time experience to ultra-enthusiasts at the apex of PC gaming. These graphics cards are surely going to strengthenAMD's professional level solutions for the Indian customers.
 

Richard Huddy,
Chief Gaming Scientist,
AMD

PC gaming, as a whole, is a colossal business worldwide. According to Richard Huddy, Chief Gaming Scientist, AMD, there are more than 700 million people (which is about 10 per cent of the total population), playing games on PCs. PC penetration in India is 70 per cent. So we can say that PC gaming is not so popular in India. The reason may be that parents do not allow their children to play games. However, it is true to say that PC gaming business worldwide is having phenomenal growth and is continuing to grow. Richard Huddy adds, “In the last couple of weeks, we observed a game launched, which made $500 million in the first step. PC gaming is growing by between 5 and10 per cent per annum.”
One of the significant things that happened in the last three years to visual computing is actually the introduction of new generation of gaming consoles, i.e. Xbox 1 and PS4.  (both are based on AMD GPUs). The other aspect is high-resolution screens, which has just revolutionized the gaming ecosystem. Raja Koduri, Corporate Vice-President, Visual Computing, AMD, “In the next two to three years, another exciting thing that we are likely to see is the increasing use of “Virtual Reality”, which is going to drive the entire PC architecture. All set to reinforce its commitment to foster innovation among gaming enthusiasts, AMD is well prepared for this. We have partnership with key verticals solution providers for the smart kits that can help us achieve our goal.”   
 

Chandrahas Panigrahi,
Country Manager,
AMD India

According to Chandrahas Panigrahi, Country Manager, AMD India, the company is currently accounts for 40 per cent of the consumer graphics card segment in India, up from 25–30 per cent last year. Chandrahas Panigrahi exerts, “After a lull of about three years, gaming is going to take off again in India this year, and there are a lot of contributions towards this; great titles are coming out. Even parents’ attitude towards gaming is slowly changing and there are now a lot people willing to look at gaming as a career, something that was unheard of a while back.”
 

Raja Koduri
Corporate VP, Visual Computing,
AMD

Having been on the front lines of graphics innovation for years, backing developers’ creative genius with the technology and firepower, AMD has worked with the Hollywood directors like Robert Rodriguez and has collaborated with the Indian filmmaker SS Rajamouli on various projects. Going forward, AMD is also in talks with the Indian directors to make them understand that they can use graphics and visual effects at a lower cost by using AMD’s technology. AMD has also partnered with educational institutions like MAAC, which trains students for using graphics and visual effects.

AMD’s successful tie-up with MAAC

 

Ram Warrier
Business Head, Maya Academy of Advanced Cinematics

"We have been associated with AMD for the last two years and we hope to take this forward also. Graphics cards provided by AMD enhance the quality of production projects. AMD graphics cards are good for three major things. First is good pricing with AMD graphics cards; secondly, the faster rendering time and thirdly the production value we get with AMD cards is far more superior than the cards available in the market. Students come to us to learn animation, so we take a lot of care when we select the system to be used by each and every student at MAAC. In the whole business of FX and animation, time as well as cost is a very big factor. AMD helps us to crash time with better technology.
We have 65 per cent of computers in our total 80 centres spread across different parts of the country, equipped with AMD graphics cards. Further, we are planning to strengthen our partnership with AMD as we are planning to reach 100 centres by the end of this fiscal."