‘Not hyping to raise funds, investors are not dumb,’ says SuperGaming Founder

SuperGaming, a Series-A funded game developer of the Indo-futuristic battle royale game Indus, has announced that the game will finally launch for users this year. SuperGaming, backed by investors including Bandai Namco, Akatsuki Entertainment Technology Fund, Skycatcher, BAce Capital, and Dream Incubator, has been has been hyping up its launch multiple times via teasers and announcements since its inception in January 2022.

In addition to Indus, SuperGaming is developing its own gaming engine, called SuperPlatform, to run hyperscale, real-time multiplayer games.

Roby John, Founder and CEO of SuperGaming, spoke to Storyboard18 about the game’s launch, investments, and the company's Licensing and Merchandising (L&M) strategies. Last month, the Pune-based gaming studio officially launched Indus, its made-in-India battle royale game, in an open beta phase.

The Indian Gaming industry was abuzz over SuperGaming's strategy to hype up its launch for users. When asked if SuperGaming is hyping its launch date multiple times to raise investor funding, John responded, “Whether you raise less or more money, people will always talk about it. But from an investor's perspective, does one think that investors are dumb to buy into hype? Investors don't buy into dumb hype. They are very smart people. The days of investors falling for hype are over. No investor is giving you money just because of some hype you’ve created.”

He added, “They are actually looking at your real product and its metrics. That’s how I’ve raised every dollar—not based on hype or promises, but on hard-earned metrics in the game.”

Speaking about the time and effort it takes to create a video game, John explained, “Not everyone can understand what it takes to make a game. It’s very difficult to explain that a game can take a decade of your life. That’s something very hard for anyone to grasp.”

How much money is required to build a battle royale game?

According to Tracxn, SuperGaming has raised a total of $6.8 million over three rounds, with the first round of funding on November 12, 2019.

When asked how much money it takes to develop a video game, John said, “Video games are like a hungry dragon. To make any kind of game, you’ve got to keep feeding that dragon forever. I’ve spent the last 15 years feeding the dragon to make these games. I’ve lost count of how much I’ve fed it, but we’ve made and raised money, putting all of it into making these games because we want to create the best experience.”

John declined to share the total amount needed to develop a game like Indus, saying, “We’ve had 150 people working on it, and we’ve invested our youth in developing the game. That’s worth more than any dollar amount. We spent eight years building the engine on which Indus runs. So, when you think about six to eight years of work going into it, it’s a considerable amount of money.”

When asked if the company has any timeline to be profitable, John said, "My goal is to always be profitable. We see the launch as a pivotal moment in our history which is an opportunity to building complex products. It takes years of engineering to build some of these and requires lots of investments."

To build a product that is profitable will obviously be the natural direction of how we're proceeding further. We have an engine business as well, where other companies use our licensed engine. So that offers us other opportunities to make money as well. John added.

Are Indians paying for virtual goods?

According to Lumikai’s report, the Indian gaming industry experienced significant growth during FY23, reaching 568 million gamers, with 25% being paying users. This reflects a 12 percent increase in gamers and a strong 17 percent growth in paying users compared to FY22.

When asked if Indians are paying for in-app virtual products, John said, “India is the fastest-growing new payer market in the world. India is adding more new payers every month on Google Play than the rest of the world combined. These are people paying for in-app purchases for the first time. The user base of those paying for virtual goods is growing fastest in the world here.”

He added, “In India, the way to make money is to earn a little amount but from a lot of users. We’ve noticed that users don’t make just one purchase. They might start with a small one but make multiple purchases over time. This increases value, but the volume comes first as users make small in-app purchases.”

Licensing and Merchandising

According to Global Market Insights, the gaming merchandise market was valued at USD 420.7 million in 2023 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 20% between 2024 and 2032. The Asia Pacific gaming merchandise market is projected to reach USD 650 million by 2032.

Speaking about SuperGaming’s L&M strategy, John said, “We’ve already started working on our merchandise. We’ve been approached by many companies to build products around our IPs. We make sure to wear Indus merch everywhere. We’ve received a lot of inbound partnership offers from those wanting to license our IP. We’ve raised money in Japan and the US, and we have connections with large companies to figure out which IPs to focus on.”

For now, however, John mentioned that it’s too early to pursue L&M deals with FMCG or Indian companies. “Once we scale our user base, we’ll look into it. We’d like to collaborate with companies that value what our game represents.”

The Indian Gaming industry is waiting for Indus’ launch to celebrate the success of India’s first homegrown battle royale game.