Taking Heads with Sony Computer's Jim Ryan

Durgesh Gupta - Televisionpoint.com | Mumbai

Jim Ryan

While every other industry is hit by recession, the gaming business appears to be one that is playing well and actually growing as Jim Ryan, co-chief operating officer, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) explains. SCEE is betting big on regional language games development, and will introduce at least six new regional language games this year.

Jim Ryan has directed the financial, information technology, and human resources backbone of SCEE for many years, ensuring the fiscal integrity and sound planning that underpin the transactional aspects of the business.

More importantly, Jim's contributions to the formulation of overall strategy have been essential to success of the company. He plays a key role in refining network business models, in implementing networking initiatives with key alliance partners, and in structuring the organisation for the coming generation of enterprise management challenges.

It appears to be the decade of gaming. What is the size of the business worldwide ?
It is difficult to quantify in dollars and cents. But in the major markets it exceeds the music industry, the movie rental and software industry. In fact, the growth of the gaming industry in the last five to six years has been phenomenal. The compound growth typically has been 20 per cent year on year. The actual size of the industry worldwide industry exceeds $ 100 billion.

Which are the markets that are driving the business ?
Interestingly, the industry started in Japan and for the first five or 10 years it was the engine of growth. But what we have seen in the last 10 years is that major western economies like the US, UK, France and Germany have really taken it to the current level.

While there is this huge growth, what do you see as the challenges ?
Obviously, issues of piracy which affect all content industries which we have to fight. Then there is the recession which we find ourselves in at the moment. But like many entertainment businesses it seems that the gaming industry is to a large extent immune from the effects of the worldwide credit crunch.

Why do you think so ?
It seems to be a case of received wisdom that when times are tough, people stop buying cars and they may stop taking that expensive foreign holiday and going out to expensive restaurants, and they stay indoors a little bit longer.

When they are at home they may be watching a movie or playing a game. In this economic downturn, sales of games in the last quarter of 2008 in Western Europe posted a 30 per cent growth year-on-year, which is staggering.

Where would you peg India in the world gaming business ?
Historically, there has not been a gaming ecosystem in India. That is something we at Sony are trying to change. The size of the Indian market is probably measured in tens of millions of dollars.

Though very small, definitely the prospects for growth are in exponential terms and we are already experiencing that. To date a majority of the sales in India have been imported ones developed for the core gamer in the western markets.

Games are very culture-specific. What sells in Western Europe may not fit well in India. How do you ensure that market fit ?
Exactly. The key to success and growth in India is in developing content that specifically targets the Indian consumers with an India cultural theme and price point, something that sits well within the family environment.

What do you see as India's USP ?
India is unique in the sense that it is a both a developer market as well as the consumer market. It has the animation skill set, the IT skill set and the story telling skill set. When you combine the three, it's a huge success.

In 2008-09, the company grew by 300 per cent and this year too we are expecting similar growth on the back of regional language games. We are looking at Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Punjabi. We already have games in English, French, Italian, German and Spanish.