BANGALORE: The "Cyber Olympics" is the India preliminary of the World Cyber Games festival to be held in Korea later this year. The India rounds will be held in Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and Pune, with the finals in Mumbai. The festival is sponsored by electronics and computer peripherals major, Samsung, in a bid to enhance the PC penetration in the country by converting PC games into a sport. "We have received 10,000 plus registrations each from cities like Pune and Bangalore. Cities like Belgaum and Hubli in Karnataka and Hyderabad and other cities in Andhra Pradesh, have also responded in a big way unlike Delhi from where we have received 1,500 registrations," Cyril Serry, project head of India Games Ltd, told reporters here. Beginning August 30, gaming enthusiasts will be converging in batches of five or 10 each to play five games -- Fifa, Warcraft III, Half life-counter strike, Unreal tournament 2003 and Age of Mythology -- to be selected to represent India in the gaming festival. "PC penetration in India is abysmally low. But, we expect the PC market to explode in India in 2005-07. And, gaming is a germination programme that we believe will drive PC buying decisions," Vivek Prakash, vice president of Samsung India Electronics Limited, said. There are no estimates on how big the Indian gaming industry is right now. But, more and more cyber cafes are reserving terminals for gaming enthusiasts who range from as young as 7 years to 30 years of age. And, the average number of terminals in cyber cafes has increased from seven to 10 terminals.
Source: IANS