In-Focus ~ Page 200 of 516 ~ My Mobile India

The growth of Gaming and Esports in 2021 is attributed to the rise in the young population, increased use of smartphones, easy availability and accessibility of technology and internet, to name a few When COVID-19 halted traditional sports events in India, the esports and gaming industry quickly pivoted and offered virtual entertainment. With entire populations staying home, online viewership has skyrocketed. The credit for this majorly goes to the rise in the young population, increased use of smartphones, easy availability and accessibility of technology and internet, rising investment by capitalists, and appropriate distribution network. Publishers like Garena, Riot, Krafton etc. are actively involved in investing and growing esports in India. Here’s how the year fared for platforms, organisations and brands and their upcoming plans for the year 2022: Abhishek Aggarwal, Co-founder and CEO, Trinity Gaming, India's top gaming talent management company How have businesses been in 2021? Things were uncertain for sure, at least towards the beginning of the year. However, I would say we rather sailed through it pretty smoothly. I am glad that we have a strong team and even though challenges were there, together we made everything possible and simple. Trinity Gaming continued to support the talents while associating them with brands like Truke, CellBell, Coca-Cola, etc. enabling them to monetize. What will be your focus area for 2022? Tell us about your plans. We aim to bring more diverse talents under the Trinity Gaming banner. We are constantly doing R&D, identifying talents, even penetrating Tier II, Tier III locations, and beyond. We are even exploring the vernacular content creators as that still demands more attention and has high potential. Creators who have a great command in vernacular languages and can stream in native language making their content more relatable to a classified section of the population is a great format to explore. We are on a mission to build a stronger esports community by supporting these talents. We want our creators to monetize through their passion for esports. Also Read: The Rise and Rise of Esports: Smartphones emerge as a key enabler Lokesh Suji, Director, Esports Federation of India and Vice President, Asian Esports Federation (AESF) How have businesses been in 2021? The year 2021 has laid down a decent foundation for the future of the Indian video games and the esports industry. 2021 can be called the “inflection point of Indian video games and esports Industry”. What will be your focus area for 2022? Tell us about plans. For Esports Federation of India (ESFI), our key focus is to ensure that we identify the best of the talent to represent India at Asian Games 2022 (scheduled in the month of Sept 2022 in Hangzhou, China), which have eight esports game titles to compete for and this time esports is a medal sport. We are already in the finalization stage with a lot of brands who have shown interest to partner up with ESFI for this prestigious event and for the glory of the country. Tarun Gupta, Founder, Ultimate Battle, India’s first-ever one-stop online esports platform How has been the year 2021 for Ultimate Battle? The year 2021 has been the most engaging year for us in terms of product expansion and user engagement. Ultimate Battle has now 15+ exciting esports games to play, 5 of which are medal esports events inducted in Asian Games 2022. This year, the platform has gained around 2.5L users and achieved a milestone of 45k MAU. What are your plans for 2022? At the product level, we’ve many exciting modules lined up to boost player engagement and provide more opportunities. We’re in the process of rolling out an Organizer Program where event organizers (schools, colleges, influencers, and more) will be able to use our platform and services to launch and manage their own action-packed esports competitions. In 2022, our focus will be to expand our portfolio of services offered to gamers in India and grow Ultimate Battle in the SEA region. Simultaneously, we’re focusing on providing end-to-end event management, marketing, and production services for brands and esports companies. Also Read: Inspiring journeys of Indian esports athletes aiming big against Pakistan, Nepal at World Esports Cup 2021 Anish Kapoor, CEO, Infinix Mobile How has been the year 2021? 2021 has been a great year for Infiinix with an overwhelming response from our customers on all our products. We did not only launch 7 outstanding smartphone devices which were tagged best in the segment for their features but also officially embarked on our journey to become the best budget gaming smartphones company in India. I am proud to say that we have led the revolution of the mobile gaming industry with the launch of our indigenous DAR-LINK game boost technology which enables users to have a seamless gaming experience on their mobile devices. Since the launch, all our devices like Infinix Hot 10S, Note 10, Note 10 Pro, Hot 11S, and Hot 10 Play sport this technology. We also had a successful launch of the Inifinix X1 40-inch smart TV which even surpassed our expectations and is one of the highest-rated smart TV on Flipkart, in its segment. The upcoming launch of INBook X1 will add another feather to our hat as it is going to be our first-ever laptop in India. There has already been a lot of excitement around the laptop since its announcement and we are looking forward to a positive response from our customers on this combination of powerful and portable laptop, which will also be the lightest in its price category. What are your plans for 2022? A good closure of 2021 has filled our teams with high morale and enthusiasm. We have an even strong pipeline for 2022 where we are planning to launch at least one product every month. As smartphones are our primary focus, we will be coming up with our first 5G smartphone next year. We are closely watching the growing gaming ecosystem and our teams are also working towards making more efficient and powerful gaming smartphones for our customers. Every year we grow stronger and bigger. Continuing that trend, we will be investing in new markets and expanding our product line, next year. Also Read: “Gaming is one of the primary focus areas for Infinix now”

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