Covid-19: Huge opportunity for Online gaming Startups. A look at EWAR Games
Lockdown and the rapid spread of virus, has forced people to stay inside their homes and confine themselves within their four walls and not venture out as they used to do in the past .This made people find some way of entertainment which they can enjoy being indoors and online gaming is one of them. One such name is EWar games which has put its step in the world of gaming early this year and seems to have done quite a good business during this covid time. People in search of some diversion have started spending a good number of hours in playing games. The gaming company could raise a capital of $ 200,000 of equity financing from Jindal Steels which is a Karnataka-based steel company, and Gameplan founded by Jeet Banerjee. Gameplan is a sports management firm, based out of Kolkata, it has helped to optimize the quality as well as the user experience of the product that has eventually helped to make the marketing and the brand promotion of the product strong. The outcome of this could be understood with 3X month on moth growth in the platform.
The Bengaluru based gaming company EWar was founded by Parth Chadha and Rahul Singh. It functions as a vernacular esports platform where a gamer has the luxury to play, watch and earn from casual games or in popular games like the PUBG, FreeFire, COD, Clash Royal, and more.
The participation models come with a variation that includes 1vs1, squad contests, and tournaments and also has the facilities of watching live streams and interacting with streamers.
The COVID -19 pandemic has really worked well for their business and they could make a good profit too. The founder of E-War Games and CEO Chadha told that “the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the growth of the platform. With its inception in January, EWar acquired the majority of its users during the lockdown period in the country, reaching almost a million gamers. EWar is keeping the engagement alive while people stay indoors.”
While commenting on his view on the effect of the pandemic in the business. He adds, “The COVID-19 pandemic has just set the stage for Esports to come in and it is going to get much bigger than this. Esports is emerging in the same way as e-commerce did in the last couple of years in India. It’s all in front of you, more people are turning to gaming, more professions are being created as a result, more investments are flowing into the ecosystem simultaneously. All of this will eventually make the industry bigger and interesting. What would have happened two years later is happening now. There has been a spike in real money gaming as it has turned out to be a source of income for many. Another development that I witnessed is that a good number of millennials have taken up gaming as a career option as it is futuristic and the industry can never hit rock bottom.”
As per his belief, he says that Indian is now apt for esports in terms of investments and investors. When asked what is the x-factor channelizing the investment. He replied “esports is expected to grow at 41 percent annually due to the growth of digital infrastructure and the substantial rise in quality and engaging gaming content. Large market size, effective business models, and innovation are the key factors driving investments in this industry.
When platform targets the audience of tier 3 and beyond, automatically tier 1 and tier 2 audience become add on. Scoring on the regional content creation EWar has been vernacular since its inception. He adds “It has been running in eight native languages and producing content, tournaments in those languages to capture and connect more audience and penetrate deeper into the markets in India. Being multilingual is definitely the way forward.”
In his views brands, these days are in search of gaming and esports industry to fulfill their motive to approach and connect with their target audience. He asserts, “All major brands are turning to game for marketing and partnerships and this, in turn, will definitely promote sports in India.” For example EWar PuBg Mahayudh phase3 is sponsored by POCO which recently launched their flagship phone POCO M2 pro with EWar as their launch stream partner. This brand sponsorship in esports tournaments has become a profitable initiative as brands get to connect with the audience in a profound way.
The brand however denied sharing their future plans (on launching any team, merchandise, shows, roping in celebrity brand ambassadors, and so on) but hinted that they are planning on progress and are expanding across verticals in the space. As investments flow in, higher competition, endorsements by legendary players, more stakeholders, technology solutions, and more the future of Indian esports is looking brighter. And he hinted that “We will soon be seeing the Tendulkars and Virat’s of Esports in India.”
