Hyderabad: The latest report released by Ernst & Young titled 'The Animation and Gaming Industry in India' reports that the global animation market is estimated at $68 billion in 2008 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10 percent to reach $100 billion by 2012. The quality of animation has improved with the incorporation of 3D effects to enhance the visual appeal. Another key trend witnessed in global animation industry is the outsourcing of animation content to Asia.

Most of the outsourcing contracts in Asia are finding their way to India. The Indian animation industry can be divided into Animation entertainment, animation education, customer content development and multimedia/web design and VFX. The entire animation industry in India was estimated at $314 million in 2006, $494 million in 2008 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 22 percent to reach $1 billion by 2012. Custom content development and multimedia/web design is the largest segment today, followed by animation entertainment, animation education and VFX, respectively.

The global gaming market was estimated at $36 billion in 2008 and is expected to grow at CAGR of 10.5 percent to reach $53.6 billion by 2012. The mobile and online gaming are relatively new segment in the global gaming arena, but have grown rapidly to account for 29 percent (mobile) and 24 percent (online) of global gaming revenues. Game consoles are evolving into multi-functional entertainment systems, offering multiplayer gameplay on the internet, internet browsing capability and options to play high definition movies.

The gaming industry can be divided into online games (massively multi-player online role playing games and casual games), mobile games, PC games and Console games. The Indian gaming industry was estimated at $50 million in 2006, $167 million in 2008 and is forecasted to grow at CAGR of 49 percent to reach $830 million by 2012. The overall size of the Indian gaming industry represents revenues from the consumer market, services market and revenues from non-development activities such as services rendered as technical support to international gaming companies. The consumer gaming market was estimated at $105 million in 2008 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 55 percent to reach $610 million by 2012. In 2008, the console gaming segment is estimated to account for the largest share of the Indian gaming market, followed by mobile gaming, online gaming and PC gaming, respectively.

This report has been launched in collaboration with NASSCOM. As part of NASSCOM's initiatives to promote the growth of the animation and gaming industry in India, NASSCOM Animation and Gaming Forum (NAGFO) was formed to catalyze the growth of the industry, and also to establish an interference with the government. Couple of days back NASSCOM had hosted its annual 'Animation and Gaming Summit 2009' in Hyderabad which also saw the launch of India's first ever Game Developer Conference.