By Krishna SinhaChaudhury
New Delhi, Oct 26 (IANS) The Personal Computer (PC) gaming market is perhaps the only silver lining in the struggling PC market, thanks to the ever-growing popularity of gaming and need for a bigger screen experience among the young Indian gamers.
According to the International Data Corporations (IDC), the gaming PC segment grew by 41.1 per cent in India in the second quarter (Q2) of 2019 and continues to be a bright spot in the struggling consumer PC market.
The surge in online gaming can also be attributed to better Internet bandwidth, quality of gameplay, and advanced gaming devices by Original Equipment makers (OEMs) at competitive prices.
The origin of PC gaming can be traced back to 1952. OXO or Noughts and Crosses game was developed by AS Douglas in that year which simulates a game of noughts and crosses.
In 1996, the increasing popularity of Microsoft Windows simplified device driver and memory management, paving way for the success of 3D console titles such as ‘Super Mario 64’ and ‘Tomb Raider’.
According to Prabhu Ram, Head, Industry Intelligence Group (IIG), CMR, the gaming market in India is slowly and steadily on the rise, driven by millennials, and playing not just on smartphones but on dedicated gaming laptops.
“Among gaming enthusiasts, PC gaming is seeing an uptake, primarily driven by accessibility, affordability and availability of significantly better games than before,” Ram told IANS.
Aiming to grab a bigger market share in this segment, PC major HP Inc. introduced its OMEN gaming laptop in India this year. It is said to be the world’s first dual-screen gaming laptop.
“With Omen, we have engineered the best experiences based on user insights to enable a holistic and exciting PC gaming ecosystem for the modern gamers in India,” Sumeer Chandra, Managing Director, HP Inc. India, told IANS recently.
Taiwanese electronics major Asus which holds 40 per cent market share in the gaming ROG (Republic of Gamers) laptop segment, is working towards expanding its offline footprint in the country.
“Currently we have three ROG stores in metro cities such as Kolkata, Bengaluru and Bhubaneswar. We are not only targeting metros but also targeting tier 2 and tier 3 cities to expand our base,” Arnold Su, Business Development Manager, ASUS India, told IANS recently.
When it comes to traditional gamers, PC gaming holds a higher place when compared to dedicated consoles, given the graphic and visual quality on PC gaming is far more advanced.
Some of the best gaming laptops with advanced hardware, super smooth performance and top-notch internals to consider include the ASUS ROG ZEPHYRUS GX501 which costs Rs 298,990, the ACER PREDATOR HELIOS 500 which costs Rs 249,999, the HP OMEN X 2S which costs 209,990, and MSI GS65 STEALTH which costs Rs 204,000.
(Krishna SinhaChaudhury can be contacted at [email protected])
–IANS
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