Game development community needs YOUR help!
452Sign the petition now: https://chng.it/fHCrczMy6n
The nascent video games industry in India which is currently valued at a little over $800 million is under the potential risk of attracting unfair regulations that could significantly harm the growth trajectory and the untapped potential of this Industry.
In January 2023 The Government of India's Ministry of Electronics & IT (MeitY) as the nodal agency announced a draft policy titled - "Draft Amendments to IT (Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules - 2021 in Relation to Online Games"
This draft policy is aimed to regulate online games that have an angle of staking money for winning cash prizes (globally known as Real Money Games and Fantasy Sports) but the definitions and the legal provisions/clauses in the draft policy bring "Video Games" played purely for entertainment and "Online Games Played for Stakes" into the same regulatory purview with no distinction being made.
This would be the same clubbing the businesses of movie theatres and casinos under the same regulation and applying blanket taxation, legal and operational compliance requirements etc even if the products, business model, consumer engagement behaviour, and effects on consumers are starkly different.
Indian video game companies are steadily evolving to create video games based on original intellectual properties and package them as exports oriented digital goods and services, this shift in the business has a significant impact on India's soft power projection, export revenues, GDP contribution and job creation. Thus, there's considerable scope for the video games industry to contribute towards India's 5 trillion economy mission.
But the absence of recognition for "video games" and the potential treatment of video games being regulated with blanket measures would risk derailing the growth trajectory of this industry in the following ways,
Operational Hazard - Video game companies in India are startups and MSMEs thus, a series of expensive taxation/operational/legal compliance will prove to be highly non-equitable and significantly increase the barriers to entry and threaten the existence of operating video game companies.
This will lead to an increase in the cost of video games that will irk consumers/gamers across the nation and might further increase video game piracy.
Discourage major international video game corporations from exploring investment and strategic partnerships in India which might otherwise prove to be instrumental in the growth of this industry.
MeitY has held stakeholder meetings with companies that operate online money wagering games, parents and teachers but they are to hold stakeholder meetings with the video games industry. The Indian government's "Digital India Act" will replace IT Act 2000 and will encompass all things digital and the internet including video games but at the moment there is a lack of sensitization among the government regulators on video games. This is what we wish to change by securing a stakeholder meeting and we have until the 25th of January 2023, upon which the window for public feedback on the draft policy ends.
A consortium of 44 notable Video Games and Esports startups and MSMEs recently banded together for this cause and wrote to the government with a representation letter which can be found here - Representation Letter by Video Games Industry along with a 27-page formal submission - Formal Submission by Video Games Industry
This consortium requests your support by adding your voice to help create awareness on this subject to clearly signify the need to demarcate video games played for entertainment and online games played for stakes. Thank You.
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