Nazara eyes ₹1,000-cr game studio revenue by FY25-end
The gaming company aims to leverage ₹850 cr fund allocated for mergers and acquisitions
Nazara Technologies, India’s only publicly listed gaming company, aims to scale its game development division’s annual revenue from approximately ₹350 crore in FY23 to ₹1,000 crore by the end of FY25, by leveraging an ₹850 crore fund allocated for mergers and acquisitions.
As part of its acquisition strategy, Nazara’s game development and publishing arm will target both Indian and global gaming platforms, and increase its contribution to the group’s overall revenue, Nitish Mittersain, chief executive, said in an interview.
“In India, we’ll look at developers with early-stage IP, while for global firms, we’ll look at developers with more scaled-up IP, strong profitability and cash flow. Our idea is to acquire companies with established gaming IP, and then scale it up. We’ve identified many opportunities, and are meeting companies actively to see acquisition opportunities.” While the company’s events arm, Nodwin, will be a significant revenue generator, the focus will be to strengthen the gaming vertical, he said. “Nodwin will continue to be a significant contributor to our revenue, but our game studio business will grow most significantly. As of last fiscal, it was around ₹350 crore in revenue. We plan to scale it up to ₹1,000 crore.”
In FY23, Nazara group companies crossed the ₹1,000-crore revenue milestone to reach ₹1,091 crore, up 21% from a year ago. Esports, which operates under Nodwin, contributed 50% to annual revenue, and gaming, accounted for 37%. In the next two fiscals, this balance could tip in gaming’s favour, he said.
As part of its efforts to scale up the gaming division, Nazara is in talks to acquire mixed reality brick and mortar gaming chain Smaaash through the National Companies Law Tribunal (NCLT)’s insolvency and bankruptcy
THE gaming company said that in India, it will look at developers with early-stage IPs
FOR global firms, it looks at developers with more scaled-up IPs, strong cash flow and profitability
process, Mint had reported on 7 March.
“As of 15 March, we had not finished our submissions for applying to acquire Smaaash due to some incomplete information. We have time to submit it by end-March. We’re still at an exploratory stage with such products,” he added.
The deadline for submission has been extended beyond 31 March and Nazara is yet to make its final application to NCLT in this matter.
“There can be some areas that we can adopt in offline-online hybrid
COMPANY’S events subsidiary Nodwin will continue to be a significant revenue generator here, all of which combine to make it a relatively small bet at a decent value.”
However, while game development and events will be the core of Nazara’s monetization strategy, online gaming is muted. Titles like rummy and fantasy sports have been hit by taxation issues and legal disputes surrounding their classification, and potential links to gambling. “We were always conservative on online gaming due to uncertainties in regulation and taxation. Once clarity comes in, we can be more active. We’re not opposed to it,” he said. India’s gaming market is likely to reach $7.5 billion in net revenue by FY28, a report by Lumikai and Google said. In-app purchases for gaming, facilitated by developer firms, are expected to contribute 44% to total revenue, up significantly from 16% in FY23.
EVENTS, game development form core monetization strategy, while online gaming stays muted
experiences. It is available at a good potential value. All this works for us to put our hands in this sector, and then see where it goes. This also works with what Nodwin offers, so we can have e-sports activities in each of these facilities. We can host our own game IPs
Mint email.
“We are writing to you today with a heavy heart but with a message of hope and reassurance. We regret to inform you that there will again be a delay in the disbursement of salaries…This irresponsible action by the 4 foreign investors has compelled us to temporarily hold the disbursal of salaries until the restriction is lifted,” it said.
“We have full faith in the Indian judicial system and we eagerly await a favourable outcome that will enable us to utilise the funds raised through the rights issue and alleviate the financial challenges that we are currently facing,” it added.
Cash-strapped Byju’s has been struggling to pay salaries on time since January this year. The company credited salaries for the month of January in February.