CyberPowerPC India is looking to dive into the Indian gaming market and pave the way forward for PC gaming. To learn more about the brand’s vision and hopes for the future, we got to interview Mr. Vishal Parekh – the Chief Operations Officer for CyberPowerPC India.
Mr. Parekh gave a detailed account of the Indian PC gaming scene, the company’s goals as well as some interesting bits of trivia which made for great conversation and an incredible experience.
CyberPowerPC India x Backdash exclusive: Breaking down the brand’s goals for the Indian market, its strategies, and the future of PC gaming
So tell us a bit more about CyberPowerPC India and the brand’s vision for the Indian market.
Vishal: CyberPowerPC India is a joint venture between Creative New Tech Limited and CyberPowerPC US, with the goal of timing it well along the growth of the Indian PC gaming market. A lot has happened in the past 2 to 5 years, and gaming has begun to boom – becoming evident even to people who are out of the industry.
People generally outside of a gaming background are now seeing that a lot of things are happening. The government is taking notice, along with the Olympics which is a result of a lot that transpired in the past few years.
There is a space which is empty for a branded custom gaming PC, and I think that’s how the whole discussion started.
CyberPowerPC US has been watching the Indian market closely for some time, and they know how gaming works, because they have been in the industry for more than 25 years. They know of the transition that happens from a mobile platform to a console, and finally to PC.
So I think all that and knowing about India’s young population is also exciting. The young population that’s ever growing and much more agile when it comes to adopting new technologies.
That was another factor, figuring out how we excel in that.
The discussions then turned into a business plan, projections happened and around 3 to 4 years from now, PC gaming is going to be much bigger than what we are seeing right now.
I agree with that. Getting a bit off topic here, but the console gaming landscape is slowly shifting to PC gaming too.
Vishal: Absolutely. If you look at it, PC gaming is more personal – unless you have a gaming room for yourself in which a console connects to a TV. Obviously, not a lot of people have that in India, but a corner within my own room where I can set my rig up and game is much more feasible.
I also think this is because India is a predominantly PlayStation only country when it comes to consoles, and therefore there are a lot of limitations in terms of platform, titles and devices – unlike Western countries where they have Xbox and Nintendo as well.
The shift we’re looking at then is a transition from mobiles to PC, and not a whole lot from consoles.
What makes CyberPowerPC unique compared to its competitors?
Vishal: If you look at PC gaming and gaming PCs in general, there are multiple markets – predefined PCs like those from Dell, Asus and HP that lack any major customization, with the other alternative being SIs which have the option to customize every part, ranging from the fan to the CPU.
CyberPowerPC comes between these two options – we are a branded customized PC solution, which sets us apart.
India’s PC demand and market is so huge that it would be difficult to say if a competitor would grab shares/demand from another. The pie is huge, and the numbers and demand are much higher than supply when it comes to real custom PCs.
When I say ‘real’ I would consider something that is geared toward hardcore gamers, competitive players and esports. If I look at that market size, it’s grown phenomenally in the past few years, and should grow even more.
SIs cannot fulfill this demand, which is why competition is not something we should be looking at. We all need to work together to provide the best possible hardware for gamers, so that people understand why customized PCs are important, how it affects their gameplay and overall gaming experience.
Certain elements will help hone specific gaming skills further, since gaming is more specialized these days, like choosing between a Sniper and a Strategist role.
This can only happen when we look at it in a holistic scenario, where we won’t compete with someone but deliver what the Indian market requires.
How do custom gaming PCs affect overall gameplay and ease of access to gaming in general? Tell us more about the EZPC module, and what sets it apart.
Vishal: We figured out that there are two sets of audiences. One is the person who knows it all, knowing sooner or later they will need to upgrade and prepare accordingly. The other includes users who are migrating to or upgrading toward PC gaming from mobile gaming, or someone who is a hardcore mobile gamer but requires a PC to stream content.
They might not really understand the difference between each specific component, given the learning curve.
What EZPC does is help you skip learning the nitty gritty of PC building which can be cumbersome for many. If I am going to play say a maximum of 3 games on my PC, EZPC allows me to generate 3 options (Good, Better, Best with further customizations on brands for CPU and GPU) based on budget.
EZPC is about what games I play instead of how much I need to spend. We are trying to change that conversation to a more logical one.
If say, I play Valorant but might be interested in GTA 6, I end up picking a higher spec config setting my budget to 1,00,000 which in turn might give me a ‘Best’ option that would cost me around 1.2L or 1.3L.
I can now take the decision of investing that extra 20-30k in order to future proof my PC when GTA 6 comes out, so that I can have the same smooth gaming experience. So I think this is something which is unique to the module, especially since we’re talking about 25+ games to choose from in the configurator.
It helps us to cater to different audiences, and helps us make good, informed decisions for them.
Would you say that it offers customization options for veterans to PC building as well?
Vishal: The configurator page on our website lets you pick a PC, with options to customize each and every part in it. So I could say, pick an Intel platform and change my motherboard to it, along with the RAM, SSD and GPU too.
Based on that, the cool thing about EZPC is that you will never end up picking components that are not compatible with each other. So you might have picked up DDR4 RAM instead of DDR5. To avoid this, the configurator will immediately throw up a message warning you that it is not compatible.
It’s like a good puzzle to solve, and I can also see my estimated FPS change as I swap components. So that’s for the veteran, who understands the whole configuration process.
Even if it’s just window shopping, it makes life easier. It’s window shopping but with all those details put into it. It’s like going into a departmental store, trying out apparel and feeling good.
That way, even if I did not buy the PC today, I can save the config and pull it up later on the day I’m ready to buy, and if required, also update it later. That’s the beauty of EZPC.
Based on current trends, are there any interesting observations about the Indian PC gaming market?
Vishal: People have been talking about 500 million gamers in India, but most people would say they are all mobile. Even if 95% of them are on mobile with the rest being spread across consoles and laptops even half of that is a large number of PC gamers.
That is absolutely huge!
The second observation is, and this is a theory which goes in the gaming industry – once a gamer, always a gamer. 18 months to 2 years is a period after which players would usually shift to a larger scale, and that is what we are observing right now.
Covid happened, and a lot of people started to shift to gaming – especially mobile gaming with the easily available, low cost mobile data plans. Teengers on a 10k phone upgraded to flagships knowing that their gaming experience would change for the better.
So from a flagship phone, what comes next? The larger scale is definitely PC gaming.
The transition from mobile to PC is already happening as we speak, with numbers are growing in terms of views, esports tournaments, and registrations.
This is going to multiply since once you start watching PC games, you realize it’s much more immersive and intense. Playing on a PC is more than just using two thumbs and fingers, it’s way more personal.
The growth for Steam gamers in India was about 150%, (which is a PC only platform) and I think the numbers speak for themselves. People know the difference between mobile and PC gaming now.
What about the content creator space? How does CyberPowerPC come into the picture?
Vishal: I would say that we have a very different set of audiences, and we can understand that. When we say gaming, people assume that it’s just video games. What we do is go beyond that, and learning from the US team definitely came in very handy for the content creation space.
The creativity in this field is a whole lot more, and gaming is just one segment of the entire content creation industry. There are a lot of content creators from different verticals such as fashion, automobiles, food, and more.
This is where EZPC comes in, with a dedicated SKU targeted toward creators. It makes life much easier for people who are not interested in the technical side of things, who just want things to work out of the box.
We are going to have a lineup that is geared toward content creation in the future. Right now, we don’t want to overbear people with too many options. It’s like going to a restaurant and seeing too many items on the menu, which can be difficult for people.
We’re taking it easy, going step by step. Talk to us, we’ll help you pick up the right config. If you like it, go ahead – if not, talk to us and we can give you further suggestions.
Regarding the Indian market, what’s the demand for high-end components versus mid-range parts?
Vishal: I think the shift has already happened. When I was with HyperX I did not see too many high-end PCs in the market to be honest, and by high-end I don’t just mean one component – I mean the whole PC spec.
Versus, nowadays I see people buying PCs with a very clear budget of nearly 3 lakh rupees, without doubting or thinking twice.
It’s clear that a shift has happened, because overall graphic and video/image editing hardware requirements have gone up, and we need more powerful PC hardware for uses beyond gaming.
Even the BFSI segment is buying high-performance PCs since the usual PCs won’t run those immense data libraries they have in their storage.
Based on the current Indian PC market, what do you want to see happen?
A lot of things. I think the first thing I would love to see would be more AAA PC gaming titles coming day one.
Secondly, I would want to see more esports tournaments coming in and therefore more participation, and spectators – which means more people taking gaming seriously, even as a career option, deep diving into verticals of what I can get into gaming as a career.
It’s a booming industry, which I would consider as a sort of startup where you just got your hands on, set the surface and are eventually going to build a huge monument that will have a lot of things around it – not just people playing games.
Game development studios are growing, we just need to give it some time.
Would you consider PC gaming as the future?
I can’t say no to this, because I’ve seen this. Mobile is the first step to gaming undoubtedly, but you cannot stay on mobile – you have to get into PC.
So for India, we’re talking about 500 million gamers right now.
Think about three years later when more people get into gaming on PC.
Mobile helps, since PC gaming can be a little scary for newcomers – you don’t know how the keys would work, how the overall experience is going to be, understanding the software interface and such.
However, if I know how BGMI works, I can easily transition to PUBG on PC. If I throw PUBG on PC first, most people won’t even look at it.
Now if I throw PUBG PC to 10 gamers who have already played BGMI or PUBG mobile, the chances of them moving to PC is much, much higher.
So yeah, PC gaming is the future for sure.
