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Gaming: Why the Zeebo will fail in India
April 30, 2009
US-based Qualcomm Inc recently announced a gaming solution for 'The Next Billion' -- the Zeebo is expected to be released in India in 2010. Targetted primarily at developing countries such as India, China, Russia and Brazil, this gaming console aims to succeed where others have failed, by enforcing anti-piracy measures and maintaining competitive prices. While they are very optimistic in their planning, anyone with a fair understanding of the Indian gaming market will tell you that their strategy just won't work, and here's why:
Pricing
While the Zeebo claims to be competitively priced, the equivalent of $199 in Brazil and $174 in other territories ($1 = Rs 50) is not only not competitive, but it's fairly expensive for what the console offers. That ($174) translates to close to Rs 9,000. Compare it to India's largest selling and still very popular console, the PlayStation 2, which is priced at Rs 6,490 ($125), and it's easy to see that the Zeebo won't be making much of a dent in the Indian market, which is heavily influenced by prices.
Software pricing, while lower than PS2 prices, still doesn't seem competitive enough. While Zeebo games will cost anywhere from $5-10 (Rs 250-500), most PS2 games cost between Rs 499 and Rs 699 ($10-14). The advantage with PS2 games is that once you purchase a game, it's yours for life, whereas on the Zeebo it's only yours while it's stored on your Zeebo's 1GB flash memory. If you delete it to make room for something else, you'll have to buy it again to get it back.
Text: Sameer Desai
Also see: Review: Killzone 2
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