Game Plan

A game with no winners

Dhruva Interactive, India’s first gaming company, was a little ahead of its time. Today, even after 20 years, Indian game developers are yet to hit pay dirt

Arundhati Ramanathan, 2 Feb 2017

Dhruva began at a time when no one in India was playing PC or console games

Now, Indians are downloading more games, but few pay for them

Game developers are pouring scarce VC money in experiments

Game developers are experimenting creating local content

In December 2016, one particular acquisition slid past most of mainstream media’s eye in India. It was a small deal, after all, just $8.5 million. Starbreeze Studios, a Swedish game developer, acquired Dhruva Interactive, a 20-year-old gaming services company. $8.5 million isn’t a lot of money, so it is easy to brush it off as a small deal. Except, if you think about the kind of company that Dhruva is and the business it is in, you will probably appreciate it a little more.

AUTHOR

Arundhati Ramanathan

Arundhati is Bengaluru-based. She is interested in how people use money in the digital age and how new economies will take shape based on that interaction. She has spent over 10 years reporting and writing on various subjects. Previous stints were at Mint, Outlook Business and Reuters.

View Full Profile

Available exclusively to subscribers of The Ken India

This story is a part of The Ken India edition. Subscribe. Questions?

What sets The Ken apart?

Others tell you what. We tell you the ‘So What?’

Read articles that decode the most significant shifts happening around business, technology, startups and healthcare. 1000+ articles for subscribers of the India edition. 150+ articles for subscribers of the Southeast Asia edition. Plus premium newsletters that help you make sense of the world around you.

Narratives that help you connect the dots

Curated collections of our best articles organised by companies, sectors or transformations.

Become part of an active community

Tens of thousands of subscribers, working at the world’s most successful companies, have made The Ken into a daily reading habit.

So much journalism in India is superficial.

Articles are generic, almost cookie-cutter in their approach. And they don’t provide enough context on the issues they cover. The Ken is different. I don’t always agree with everything they say but I appreciate their commitment to publishing deeply reported narratives and investigations. Their reporters find new ways to analyze tech among other industries. And that’s always worth a read.

Sid Talwar / Co-Founder and Partner / Lightbox Venture Capital

As entrepreneurs, we thrive on being in the know at all times.

A personal subscription to The Ken was a no brainer. But as startup founders, this isn't enough. Team members also need to be in the know, for everyone handles customer-facing responsibilities and an ecosystem change that impacts customers also impacts us

Kiran Jonnalagadda / Co-founder / HasGeek and Internet Freedom Foundation

This is a brilliant piece. Very well researched and explained.

The policy & execution is in quite a mess. the flip flops on KYC, the insidious use (& abuse) of consent, the hopeless competition with zero-balance Jan Dhan accounts - all brought out starkly. Congratulations!

Ajit Ranade / Chief Economist / Aditya Birla Group

Thanks to The Ken, we have articulate, original & relevant stories

that shape our understanding of businesses around us. With placements around the corner, Ken is a great resource to prepare and ace our interviews.

Sandeep Ganesh / Student Body President / ISB 2018

An article from The Ken has become an intrinsic part of my daily news diet.

Nandan Nilekani / Former Chairman / UIDAI

I look forward to Ken's incisive reporting, rigorous research, and contrarian but always logical viewpoints

Deep Kalra / Group CEO / MakeMyTrip

The Ken is my daily guide to intelligent business journalism like never before.

Kapil Chopra / Former President / Oberoi Hotels

Unlock a world of subscriber privileges.
Subscribe now

Exclusive Access

Read 1000+ stories in the Indian edition

App access

Get access to our subscriber-only Android and iOS apps

Comments

Engage with the subscriber community

Premium Newsletters

The best newsletters in Asia, delivered straight to your inbox

Questions?

What is The Ken?

The Ken is a subscription-only business journalism website and app that provides coverage across two editions - India and Southeast Asia.

What kind of stories do you write?

We publish sharp, original and reported stories on technology, business and healthcare. Our stories are forward-looking, analytical and directional — supported by data, visualisations and infographics.

We use language and narrative that is accessible to even lay readers. And we optimise for quality over quantity, every single time.

What do I get if I subscribe?

For subscribers of the India edition, we publish a new story every weekday, a premium daily newsletter, Beyond The First Order and a weekly newsletter - The Nutgraf.

FFor subscribers of the Southeast Asia edition, we publish a new story three days a week and a weekly newsletter, Strait Up.

The annual subscription will get you complete, exclusive access to our archive of previously published stories for your edition, along with access to our subscriber-only mobile apps, our premium comment sections, our newsletter archives and several other gifts and benefits.

Do I need to pay separately for your premium newsletters?

Nope. Paid, premium subscribers of The Ken get our newsletters delivered for free.

Does a subscription to the India edition grant me access to Southeast Asia stories? Or vice-versa?

Afraid not. Each edition is separate with its own subscription plan. The India edition publishes stories focused on India. The Southeast Asia edition is focused on Southeast Asia. We may occasionally cross-publish stories from one edition to the other.

Do you offer an all-access joint subscription for both editions?

Not yet. If you’d like to access both editions, you’ll have to purchase two subscriptions separately - one for India and the other for Southeast Asia.

Do you offer any discounts?

No. We have a zero discounts policy.

Is there a free trial I can opt for?

We don’t offer any trials, but you can sign up for a free account which will give you access to the weekly free story, our archive of free stories and summaries of the paid stories. You can stay on the free account as long as you’d like.

Do you offer refunds?

We allow you to sample our journalism for free before signing up, and after you do, we stand by its quality. But we do not offer refunds.

I am facing some trouble purchasing a subscription. What can I do?

Please write to us at [email protected] detailing the error or queries.

A game with no winners