(Top) Blur in Chennai is a gamers’ paradise with three floors dedicated to multi-format gaming; (above) the snazzy interiors of the Xbox lounge in Blue-O, Gurgaon

Software engineer and hardcore gamer Anush Kumar, 22, spends at least four hours a day devising ways to defeat the Allies of World War II in his favourite game, Company of Heroes. Till eight months ago however, Kumar had to make do with gaming either at home or at a local cyber café-type of gaming centre. That meant lower-resolution images and slower computers that produced a lag effect in action sequences.

Then, Kumar discovered Blur, the snazzy 15,000-sq ft, multi-format gaming centre at the Sathyam Cinemas complex in Chennai. Now Kumar rushes to Blur’s PC gaming zone after work every evening. He loves to play on Blur’s high-tech PCs with their dual graphic cards and the specialised Razer DeathAdder 3G gaming mouse. “Blur is the biggest phenomenon in my life. I can now play on high configuration machines, and in a great ambience too,” says Kumar.

In Bangalore, meanwhile, Kavita Rathi has just celebrated her husband’s birthday at The Living Room, a sophisticated gaming lounge dedicated to gaming on consoles like the Microsoft Xbox 360, Nintendo Wii and Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3). It has become the hottest destination for gaming in Bangalore, and casual gamers gather here on weekends. Kavita loves to play tennis on the Wii while her husband’s addicted to soccer on the Xbox 360.

Kumar and Rathi aren’t the only ones discovering — or rediscovering — the joys of gaming. New-format gaming centres like Blur in Chennai and Living Room and Consoul Interactive in Bangalore are slowly emerging across the country. And national chains like Zapak and Sify are aggressively expanding their reach too.

Zapak intends to add 90 new Gameplexes — as its gaming centres are called — over the next three months. It will expand its reach from 35 cities currently to 50-odd cities. So if you’re a gamer in Siliguri, get ready for the Zapak experience.

Or if you’re in Gurgaon, how about hopping across to the Xbox Lounge at Blu- at PVR there? You can score a goal on Fifa 09 or attempt to stop the Locust assault in Gears of War 2 on the Xbox 360. Yes, even family entertainment zones like Blu- are reaching out to gamers. Ever since it opened in April, the Xbox lounge has become a hit with youngsters.

Says Rohit Sharma, COO, Zapak Digital Entertainment: “As the broadband infrastructure proliferates and as centres expand, gaming is poised to become very big in India. We’re committed to seeing this business expand.”

Adds Ashim Mathur, national marketing manager, entertainment and devices division, Microsoft India: “We’ve seen the gaming business evolve since we launched the Xbox in India in 2006. It’s still predominantly a metro phenomenon but it’s spreading to other cities now. And gamers here are as clued into the latest blockbuster games as gamers worldwide.”

The Living room in Bangalore (top) is a gaming lounge dedicated to console gaming; (above) young gamers in high-adrenaline mode at the Zapak Gameplex in Calcutta

A new format

If you thought that dedicated gaming centres were just another version of your tacky old cyber cafe, think again. The new entrants are redefining the rules of the game. So Blur in Chennai is experimenting with a multi-gaming format while Consoul Interactive and Living Room in Bangalore are betting on console gaming to create a new community of gamers.

Consoul Interactive was the first dedicated console gaming centre to open in January 2007. It was set up by gaming aficionados Anip Mehta, Gautam Singh and Nikhil Ballal. “We launched it as a pilot project initially. But now we’re looking to expand,” says Mehta.

The 400-sq ft centre is a dedicated Xbox 360 zone — it has five consoles and a cosy atmosphere with bean bags.

Meanwhile, the Living Room, which opened last June, has got Xbox 360s and PS3s and Nintendo Wiis too. It was set up by former school buddies Rohit Chatterjee and Mohan Mahadeviah. Chatterjee worked in a hedge fund and Mahadeviah with New York Life before they moved back home from Manhattan to set up Living Room. “We wanted to set up a venue for entertainment and felt that gaming is something new, which will appeal to people of all ages,” says Chatterjee.

Like its name suggests, it’s done up like a “New York-inspired” living room with burnt-brick walls and hardwood floors. It’s divided into eight mini-living rooms, each with its own flat-panel television connected to a gaming console and plush sofa and coffee table. All the mini-living rooms are networked so groups can play against each other. There are seven Xbox 360s, one PS3 and two Wiis.

Chatterjee believes that console gaming is the way to expand the market since it’s accessible to first-time casual gamers. “Gaming is still very nascent here. On the other hand, most of our customers are casual gamers, so there’s a growing potential. People are realising that video games aren’t just for teenage boys,” he says.

So popular has the Living Room become over the last year that it has emerged as a favourite venue for birthday parties too. Mothers like Madhushree Bajaj don’t mind sending their kids here either.

Bajaj’s seven-year-old son Mohanish loves gaming and while she restricts his Xbox time at home, she doesn’t mind him visiting the Living Room once a fortnight.

“We’ve developed a liking for gaming because of Mohanish. My husband loves the Wii but is very particular about the ambience. This place is very sophisticated and suits us,” says Bajaj.

Or take Rathi, another frequent visitor. “My husband is crazy about the Xbox and I love the Wii so on Sundays, we often spend time here. It’s good fun,” she says.

At Consoul Interactive too, Mehta has seen his share of converts. “We’ve seen fathers come here to play with their sons and get hooked on instead,” he says. Mehta plans to open two more Consoul centres, one by August in Bangalore

Console makers like Microsoft too are pushing gaming by renewing initiatives like its Xbox Lounge. In April, Microsoft opened an Xbox Lounge at Blu- at PVR, Gurgaon.

Gautam Dutta, CEO, PVR Blu-, which is setting up family entertainment centres, describes Blu- as a “fashion bowl”. “It’s a great concoction of great ambience, great food and great lounges where people can unwind. There’s something for every age group here,” he says.

So apart from its mainstay bowling, PVR Blu- has an XBox to lure youngsters, which is already booked for nine hours a day. A one-hour session costs Rs 250.

Says Microsoft’s Mathur, “The response has been phenomenal”. He now hopes to extend it to other Blu- centres. The second Blu- will open in Bangalore in 10 months.

Microsoft is also pushing its consoles in PC-gaming centres like Zapak, with whom it entered a partnership in January. Accordingly, Microsoft has installed Xbox 360s in around 12 Gameplexes so far.

So if you happen to be at the Gameplex at Koramangala, Bangalore, or Malviya Nagar in Delhi, you can try and beat the aliens in the super-hit Halo3.

Sify Technologies’GameDromes are getting a good response in smaller cities too

The more, the merrier

If some centres are focusing on console gaming, others like Blur are looking at providing all kinds of gaming.

“Blur was initiated with the intent of providing a complementary entertainment experience to the existing movie experience. We saw an opportunity to do a variety of gaming formats that would appeal to a broad segment of people,” says Tan Ngaronga, COO, Sathyam Cinemas, which owns Blur.

Blur, which opened last November, occupies 15,000sq ft or three floors of the Sathyam Cinema complex. Each floor is dedicated to a different gaming format.

So Level 4 has PC gaming. There are 28 PCs equipped with dual-XFX GeForce 8800GT graphic cards from NVIDIA, considered the pinnacle in gaming. And the entire LAN network — the PCs are connected on LAN to enable multi-player gaming — is supported by an nForce Media Communications Processor from NVIDIA, which links two or more video cards together to render graphics seamlessly. This means a superior multi-player experience. Blur doesn’t support multi-player gaming over the Internet though.

There’s console gaming too at Blur. Level 5 has eight Nintendo Wiis. While Level 6 has arcade games and a console gaming section with seven PS3s and 10 Xbox 360s.

“The response has been great. We’ve seen a growth in various segments from teens to families and more mature consumers as well,” says Ngaronga.

What’s more, the smart gaming ambience is backed by attention to detail. So there are Pyramat lounge-chairs designed for gaming with in-built speakers and sub-woofers. These connect directly to the consoles. PC gamers can even don a 3rd Space Gaming Vest to feel the impact of a bullet in a shooting game.

Hardcore gamers like S. S. Prashanna and N. Venkat, though, don’t care for the gaming vests. “It’s for casual gamers,” says Prashanna, a dentistry student.

The two, like many other hardcore gamers in Chennai, have become diehard fans of Blur’s PC gaming zone. Both love the first-person shooter game, Call of Duty Modern Warfare (CoD), and first met at Blur in December. By May, they were members of the “clan” that won the CoD championship there.

“I go to Blur because a lot of gamers hang out here. Plus I can play on very high-resolution settings” says Prashanna who visits Blur at least once a fortnight.

“Blur gives a real gaming experience,” adds Venkat, a first year engineering student who recently spent his entire summer holidays — and pocket money too — at Blur. A one-hour session at Blur costs Rs 100 while a monthly package costs Rs 3,000.

Reaching the masses

These new gaming centres are still in a minority though. And PC gaming centres remain the big thing in India. But even here, majors like Zapak and Sify are planning to expand the market.

Zapak’s Sharma estimates that India has barely 4,000-5,000 good gaming cafés against 150,000 Internet cafes. Zapak, which opened its first Gameplex in August 2007, is in overdrive mode. It has expanded its Gameplexes from 35 in 16 cities in 2008 to 60 Gameplexes in 35 cities today.

By December, there will be 200 Gameplexes in all. Sharma believes that gaming in India is poised to grow. For instance, Zapak Gameplexes’ average revenue per user has doubled to Rs 1,500 a month over the last year. Each 1,000sq ft-1,200-sq ft Zapak Gameplex typically has 30 seats and offers online PC gaming.

Meanwhile, Sify Technologies, which first introduced online PC gaming in its e-Port cyber cafés and then set up dedicated GameDromes in 2004, is renewing its thrust too. Over the last few years, Sify has taken its GameDromes from the metros to Tier 2 cities. “We’re seeing a response from smaller cities too,” says Vivek Srinivasan, head, operations, e-Port, Sify Technologies.

Now, Srinivasan intends to expand the GameDromes through franchisees wherever Sify’s broadband network expands. Sify has 120 GameDromes in 50 cities today. A typical GameDrome ranges from 10 PCs to 30 PCs. “We’re seeing a lot of people getting into casual gaming,” says Srinivasan.

Players like Rishab Salian, who set up the first dedicated gaming centre, LSG in Mumbai back in 2002, and who has consulted many gaming companies since, though feels that the big players still don’t understand gaming.

“Gaming is a cult. It’s like cricket. You can’t expect a day trader to sit next to a gamer like the cyber cafes did earlier. Even in dedicated gaming centres, you need someone who’s passionate about gaming to understand the needs of gamers.” says Salian, who coached even two prize-winning teams at the Vixture gaming tournament last year.

For now, gaming may continue to have a small base in the country — till the broadband infrastructure improves and till games and consoles become more affordable. But the gaming centres are doing their best to push the boundaries of the game.