India with one of the biggest untapped gaming market in the world with less than one per cent penetration held a huge potential with industry bodies estimating that it would reach 425 million dollars by 2010.

India was lagging behind by 10-15 years in the world gaming curve but had picked up rapid growth in the last two-three years with the console gaming component having experienced a seven fold growth, said Atindriya Bose, Country Manager, Sony Computer Entertainment.

"The Indian gaming market right now is nascent but many new gamers were moving in. It is currently a vibrant market", he said adding that the sector was picking up in the metroes as well in other cities with the Punjab belt, Gujarat, Vishakatpatnam, Salem, Thiruvananthapuram seeing a lot of momentum.

However the industry was facing some challenges: Import duties were as high as 31.7 per cent, creating a major hurdle.

The fluctuation of the dollar rate had also hindered stabilisation of prices, he said.

But, there had been a lot of rationalisation of prices of gaming consoles recently. The playstation two and portable playstation which were in the range of Rs 11,000 to Rs 18,000 had dropped to Rs 6,000 to Rs 9,000 while the Playstation three had seen a drop in prices from Rs 40,000 to Rs 25,000, he said.

Piracy was another major hurdle especially in Playstation and Portable Playstation. However, rationalisation of prices had helped in countering the piracy effect to some level, he said.

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