Online Games

A report on Friday showed added that consumer spending on games has gone up by around 40 per cent in the last three years

The company has reimagined the game for the Indian audience, bringing several new updates including full-fledged Hindi language support to provide an immersive experience for Indian gaming community

Softbank-backed InMobi group's mobile gaming platform Nostra on Tuesday said it expects to grow its user base by close to three-fold to 200 million by 2024. Nostra, formerly Glance Gaming, said it has surpassed 75 million monthly active users in online gaming through Glance Lock Screen, making it India and Southeast Asia's largest mobile gaming platform. "Users are not only playing games on Nostra but also engaging deeply with games streams. They clocked over 470 million hours watching game streams in 2022. We plan to take Nostra's proposition that users clearly love global and aim to reach over 200 monthly active users in the next two years on the back of Glance lock screen and several other device partnerships," InMobi Group co-founder and Glance COO and President Piyush Shah said. Online gaming is one of the fastest-growing industries globally. In India alone, the online gaming market is estimated to cross USD 7 billion by 2025, the statement said. "Glance is fully committed to

Online gaming companies will not be allowed to engage in betting on the outcome of games under the principle laid in draft rules, Minister of State for Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said on Monday. The minister said that as of now, all permissible online gaming will need to be registered with a self-regulatory organisation that will be accountable to the online gaming rules. "As per the principles laid under the rule, wagering on the outcome of game will not be allowed. All online gaming companies will have to register with the self-regulatory body that will decide on the action required to be taken as per the rules," Chandrasekhar said. The Ministry of Electronics and IT has published draft rules for online gaming companies and has invited comments on the same by January 17. The objective of the rule is to grow the online gaming sector and encourage innovation, he added. The minister said that he expects the online gaming rules to be ready in early February.

The states will also be asked to appoint grievance redressal executives and nodal contract executives

The Department of Sports under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has been notified as the nodal agency for e-sports

The industry came under scrutiny after the proliferation of games like cards, casinos, and fantasy sports among young people led to addiction and financial losses, with some reported cases of suicide

For years, the company has made it very obvious that it is acquiring studios to support Xbox (and Game Pass) exclusives

Nintendo said that the partnership will "strengthen the digitalisation" of its business which has already been incredibly successful for the company

The streaming giant said that the players will find old-school gameplay improved with new fighting mechanics and will discover adventures with a new story mode

In the arcade game 'Fruit Ninja Classic+', players can earn the new Christmas Tree Blade in its Christmas event, running December 9 through December 27

The game is described as a multiplayer action role-playing game (RPG), which allows players to choose different roles and enjoy either the story or multiplayer mode

Sweeney told The Verge that the idea to bring Fortnite to VR will not work well

The championship tournament was scheduled to take place between December 9-11

Jobs seen as influencers, software developers, animators as industry grows in country

How is game of skill different from game of chance?

A debate around the game of skill, where people with experience have a better chance of winning and making money than the rookies and game of chance has been raging for a while now. Here's more

Centre and state GST officers are working with online gaming sector experts to define 'games of skill' and 'games of chance' with a view to design different taxation structures for them, sources said. The vexed issue of levying Goods and Services Tax (GST) on online games has been hanging fire for over a year now with many states pitching for a lower tax rate on those online games which require skill. They are of the opinion that games of skill should not be treated at par with games of chance. The absence of a clear definition often leads to tax notices being sent to online game portals and subsequent litigations. According to sources, the GST Council's Law Committee, which met in Bengaluru on Saturday, discussed the issues concerning definition for 'games of skill' and 'games of chance' with technical domain experts. As all states are not part of the law committee, the draft report on definition would be shared with all states for their views. Sources further said the GoM (Group

The law panel has informed the group of Ministers (GoM) that a clear definition will clear confusion and reduce scope for multiple litigations

Will largely focus on entrepreneurs aspiring to build disruptive ventures in online gaming, digital marketing, digital content, sports tech, eSports, blockchain tech and analytics

Spry Fox has joined the streaming platform to become its sixth in-house games studio, Netflix said in a blogpost