The gaming PC market in India is growing strongly, with shipments up 4% in 2018 to 366,000 units. Gaming laptops saw tremendous growth of 123% and now make up 50% of the gaming PC market. However, privacy and security are major concerns for gamers. Gamers worry about data theft from hacking, malware, and lack of support from gaming companies and vendors. Best practices for gamers include using security software, unique passwords, and limiting personal information shared. Vendors can help by providing security solutions, VPNs, partnering with secure platforms, and increasing security awareness.

1. Gaming PC Market in India and issues
related to privacy
Author: Abinash Pradhan

2. Project scope
Objectives
Scope
Deliverables
1
2
4
Research
questions
3
— To understand Total addressable market for Gaming PCs Market in India.
— India PC (Desktops and Laptops) market
— Research material: Leverage multiple data sources like Social media, reviews, Secondary etc. to build the story
— Report will be delivered in ppt format – With Web search
— Identify Total Addressable market size for Gaming PCs in India?
— What are your point of views on Privacy?
— What are the concerns of consumers related to privacy and also to identify best practices for the same?
— What are consumers feeling about privacy, why do they feel that?
— What are implications because of this and how can vendors address this problem?

3. India Gaming PC Market is growing strongly
Source: IDC shipment data for gaming PCs
50%
50%
23%
77%
20182017
Gaming
Laptops
Gaming
Desktops
100 100
Gaming PC segments
share 17 vs 18
351,923
366,000
2017 2018
+4%
Gaming PC OEM units
shipped 17 vs 18
>
– 366,000 units of gaming PC s are shipped
to Indian in 2018 up from 4% to previous
year
– Gaming laptops segment is seeing a
tremendous growth of 123% in 2018
reaching 50% of overall gaming PC
shipments
– Indian PC market is matured and
declining, however fastest growth is seen
in gaming PCs due to rise in affordability
of high performance gaming PCs and
growing penetration in tier-3 cities and
smaller tow.

4. India is expected to be a major gaming market
“The gaming PC category, specifically
over the last two years, has grown
more than 10x,”
Adarsh Menon, Vice President and
Head, Flipkart
“People who play on phones graduate
to PCs and start playing graphics-heavy
games along with these popular
games,”
Bharath Shenoy, Market Analyst, IDC
“India can be as big as Europe when it comes to E-
Sports or as big as China quite soon. The
demographics here are the same, there is desire in
this country to be part of this segment. There is a
growing middle class, some disposable income
and it is emerging pretty rapidly.”
Lee Machen, Intel’s General Manager
“For Indian gamers, gaming is an ‘Always on’
mindset and it has become a mainstream
popular culture for people. A new, powerful
group of mature gamers with very advanced
needs has emerged who are seeking devices
to improve their gaming experience.”
– Vickram Bedi, Senior director, HP Inc. India
“The company continues to ramp up its
efforts to expand its portfolio and
engagement with the gaming community,
as India is a key market for it”
Arnold Su, Asus India Head
“As PC gaming continues to grow in
popularity, it’s important for gamers to
take steps to help keep their device and
personal information protected.”
Gary Davis, chief consumer security
evangelist at McAfee
Source: Various analyst reports (check the working file for clarification)

5. Acer leads the India’s Gaming PC market
Source: IDC shipment data for gaming PCs
Gaming PC OEM market share in 2018
40%
22%
20%
18%
Acer
Asus
Lenovo
Others (HP,Dell, etc)
– Acer is the market leader, and has the largest portfolio of
gaming PCs in India catering to casual to professionals gamers
– Asus is expanding rapidly and has plans of doubling its
network of branded stores to 200 by end of 2019 and reach
30% share in gaming PC market by 2019
– Lenovo is launching several new gaming PC (Legion series)
across price points to expand its reach and catering to multiple
gaming segments
– According to market estimates, the average selling price of
gaming laptop in India is around Rs 65,000 a unit and serious
gamers look for laptops priced above Rs 1 lakh.
– More consumers are now going online to purchase high
performance gaming PCs in India, according to Flipkart.

6. Trends, drivers & challenges of Gaming PC Market
Source: Various analyst reports (check the working file for clarification)
Trends Drivers Challenges
– The gaming PC segment in India
registered a 41.1% growth.
– Shift of casual mobile gamers to PC
gamers is on rise.
– 50 out of 275 million gamers looking
to move into PC.
– The online gaming industry in India
is likely to generate revenue of
₹11,900 crore by 2023.
– The evolution of technology (AR/VR,
adoption on PAAS) has seen an
unbelievable makeover in the
gaming industry.
– Gamers spend just Rs 300-500 per
day to play at gaming cafes.
– E-commerce platforms like Flipkart
(10x in last 2 years) are driving sales
of high performance gaming PC.
– Rise in demand from tier-3 cities due
to better bandwidth availability and
young population.
– Increase in broadband and wireless
internet penetration has led to the
widespread adoption of online
gaming in India.
– Rise of Esports in India is driving the
premium gaming PC segment sales.
– Affordability of gaming PC (mid-tier
products)
– Privacy and security has always been
a big concern for gamers.
– Easy availability of pirated
games
– Players require hardware that allows
them to run games seamlessly at the
highest performance output settings.
– Increasing installation of various
advanced graphic cards leads to
increase in prices of laptops and PCs.

7. Security risk is rising and is a major concern for
online gaming industry
 Online security is a serious concern for gamers
as most of the games are available on
internet.
 Gamers fear hackers and cybercriminals who
attack gaming PCs and steal user information.
 Gamers feels insecure to do an online financial
transaction for purchase/upgrade of games.
 Esports community is worried about their
vulnerability towards malicious campaigns
including DDoS attacks, malware and
extortion.
Feelings and concerns
– As per a survey by Limelight Networks, 45% Indian respondents
would not continue to play online games or make purchases on a
website that is previously been hacked or experienced a security
incident with results showing women are more concerned about
online security than men.
– Global Gaming Industry Witnessed 12 Billion Cyber Attacks in Past
17 Months as criminals can easily exchange in-game items for profit.
– Cases like bullying and stealing gamers’ profiles happens quite lot in
games like PUBG and Grand Theft Auto (GTA) .
– Trend Micro (a security software company) predicts that
cybercriminals will increasingly target the esports industry over the
next three years.
Facts
Source: Various reports and articles (check the working file for clarification)

8. Gamers’ biggest worry is on data theft and lack of
support from gaming industry
 Hardcore gamers have a fear of loosing
personal data that includes user's gaming
platform credentials and profile valuable game
pieces and tokens etc.
 Piracy has been a major concern for PC
gamers as there is always lack of sources to
get games legitimately in India.
 Customers feels that’s they don’t get enough
support related to privacy/security from
vendors (PC manufacturers and ecommerce
platforms like Amazon, Flipkart)
 Parents are worried about children as they
become most vulnerable to bullying, identity
theft, credit card fraud and even sexual
exploitation.
Feelings and concerns
– In January 2015, it was reported that a plain text list containing
1,800 Minecraft usernames and passwords had been leaked online.
– According to Statista, the biggest group of gamers are under 24
years of age that consists of school and college students with no
steady means of income other than pocket money, which is not
sufficient to buy games.
– Popular PC games like “Grand Theft Auto series” and “GeForce”
recently have fallen pray to online hijackers.
– AVG has found that 90 percent of pirated video games are infected
with malware.
– As per McAfee, 60% of parents are worry about cybercriminals
hacking personal and financial information.
Facts
Source: Various reports and articles (check the working file for clarification)

9. Data theft risk extends to many areas including gaming
platforms, payment gateways and user devices
 PC gamers feels insecure as many gaming
companies have started taking a lot of
personal information.
 Gamers are well aware of privacy risks
involved in popular games as they have either
an online component or a pay-as-you-play
business model where in-game items and add-
ons can be bought for real money.
 Gamers are equally worried about their
internal and external device (such as webcams
and microphones) as it can be controlled
remotely by attackers.
Feelings and concerns
– Gaming companies such as Epic Games and Rockstar require an
account to play games or access social features.
– Battlefield 5 has a competitive mode of up to 64 players, which
means a single game provides a potential malicious actor up to 63
usernames on which to try common or default passwords.
– As per Infosecurity magazine, 15,000 private webcams around the
globe which could be accessed by anyone with an internet
connection are raising serious security and privacy concerns.
– According to Trend Micro Inc., personal information is ultimately
more valuable than an in-game item
– It could either be sold in cybercriminal underground markets,
or used to further invade the victim's privacy by accessing
email and other online accounts.
Facts
Source: Various reports and articles (check the working file for clarification)

10. Privacy Implications to gamers
– Due to privacy issues, gamers are reluctant to provide personal details with
gaming companies, hence they should take ultimate responsibility for keeping
accounts secure.
– Gamers are always worry about gaming’s security as most of them have
experienced some form of cyber attacks.
– Gamers are a niche demographic known for spending money, so their financial
status is also a potential target.
– Many families take their old devices to the local electronics recycling center or
sell them on swap sites before deleting personal information, private data/files
etc., which leads to data breach.
– Children are most vulnerable and parents are also less aware of cyberattack risks
which is leading to lack of monitoring of online game play.
– Easy availability of pirated games in Indian market makes gamers easily
vulnerable.

11. Best Practices to mitigate privacy risks
– Make sure your computer has an activated security suite: a firewall, anti-spyware software and antivirus software.
– To ensure devices continue to run free of malware, use a comprehensive security solution that can help keep devices protected against
malware, phishing attacks, and other threats.
– Always use unique passwords for all online accounts. Avoid reusing passwords.
– Activate two-factor authentication whenever it is available.
– Keep different usernames and passwords across different games, platforms and accounts.
– Avoid visiting or downloading from unverified sites/sources.
– Verify the authenticity and security of downloaded files and new software
– Avoid downloading game cheating apps and programs as they may contain malware.
– Do not accept downloads from strangers.
– Gamers should always use gaming digital distribution platforms like Steam to purchase and download games.
– Keep your financial and personal profile secure
– Always keep personal details away and limit purchases to official gaming stores.
– Don’t link the debit or credit card in gaming account if you are not planning on buying Items.
– Gamers should always use a program that completely removes data by overwriting the data multiple times before disposing
old PCs to the local electronics recycling center or sell them on swap sites.

12. Recommendation to vendors
– Vendors can partner with security firms to provide end-to-end Security Solutions to protects gamers’ identities, data and
other credentials. Vendors could negotiate a subsidized rate for gamers to make it more affordable to improve security
– PC vendors could also provide Virtual Private Network (VPN) that give access to geo-blocked gaming content and privacy
advantages.
– Partner with app store or a gaming platform companies like Steam and Activision which provides superior security and
privacy solution for games download.
– Vendors could create/encourage community platforms to discuss privacy concerns, remedies etc.
– Provide 24x7 premium services like game installation assistance, help configuring system settings, or need assistance with
driver updates to enhance security.
– Increase security awareness by running marketing campaigns in digital and physical gaming event platforms through blogs,
videos, seminars etc.

13. Gaming PC Market in India and issues
related to privacy
Author: Abinash Pradhan