Ask a gamer what their biggest quandary is and one of the most common responses is deciding what to play on.
While everyone usually has a preference, the increasing popularity of consoles like the Playstation and Xbox in the country has added to the dilemma. Despite competitive pricing of the consoles in recent years, the near prohibitive price of games has led to many shying away from adding some gaming horsepower to their TVs.
This situation has not gone unnoticed, and over the past year, Bengaluru has seen a number of options crop up to help the cash-strapped gamer experience console gaming by renting games and devices.
Purnank Prakash, Mayank Banka, Ishant Sahu and Jeevan Choudhary, batchmates from NIT Trichy who moved to Bengaluru a while back, experienced a roadblock when the second-hand console they bought broke down soon after delivery.
Left in the lurch with no support, they asked around and realised that the console owners either have to visit gaming lounges and play for limited periods, or rent games at high rates. The four of them went on to set up Tacnik, a game rental service that offers users subscription plans to rent games, much like a library.
“We realised that a lot of console owners are not actively gaming because of the high cost of procuring games. So we started a facility to rent the device and the games from us, and also build a community where gamers with similar interests can come together,” Purnank explains.
Tejas Dsouza, a gamer and a game parlour owner since 2010, had a first person-view of the situation aspiring console gamers faced. “The PC used to be very popular but consoles have gained ground recently, with a lot of people picking them up to play together with friends. Also with the new generation (PS4 and Xbox One), the hardware has caught up and many games are exclusive to consoles.”
Early this year, Tejas offered up the option of renting games and hardware through his venture, Rentgames.in.
“With game parlours, you have many restrictions and cannot play overnight if you like. We thought of giving gamers the option to pickup a console and a couple of controllers, and even a TV if they require one, so they can create a gaming setup wherever they like,” says Tejas.
More than the idea of making console gaming affordable, these services are slowly clearing the decks for Indian gamers to join the thriving international console gaming community.
Both Tacnik and Rentgames also partner with event organisers to set up stalls and gaming stations, besides adding to the used devices market, making hardware accessible. While Tacnik already sells pre-owned games and will soon offer used consoles, Rentgames allows subscribers a rent-to-own option on their consoles, introducing more gamers into the fold.
Chethan Kumar, chief operating officer at Alvoff, another game subscription platform that operates out of Bengaluru, Delhi and Pune, says that the demand for games in these cities is booming. “Out of the three, Mumbai leads with most requests, followed by Delhi and Bengaluru. And most of the growth in this segment has been purely organic. In big cities, most customers can afford to buy a good TV, and the option of being able to rent games is leading to a lot of people buying new consoles as well.” Alvoff operates on a library-like mechanic and only deals in games, offering subscription plans and options to pre-order upcoming games.
After a lull that followed the years playing Super Mario on boxy televisions, the console gaming revolution is making a return, powered by next-generation hardware and gamer-centric services. There's never been a better time to sit on a couch with friends and press Start.
Platform pointers
The most popular game consoles today are the Sony Playstation (introduced in 1994) and Microsoft Xbox (introduced in 2001). Nintendo's Wii (introduced in 2006) and handheld consoles like the DS are also popular.
Motion-based gaming, a native feature on the newer Wii and introduced in later generation PlayStation and Xbox devices as Move and Kinect respectively, have become popular family and exercise activities.
Virtual Reality (VR) support is the next big-thing for the platforms, with Sony already outing a Playstation VR headset.
Both Playstation and Xbox have popular franchises exclusive to them, such as the Uncharted franchise for Playstation and the Halo series for Xbox.
