India Gaming Show 2017

Hall No. 18 of Pragati Maidan, New Delhi was probably the happiest place in India from 2nd-5th of February 2017. Reason being, it was the venue for India Gaming Show 2017, the first and largest gaming show in India. Up until now fans of video games had to either spend a bucket load of money and go abroad to attend such an event or be happy by watching it through someone else' eyes on YouTube and Facebook. But thanks to some brilliant and thoughtful minds India finally got its own video game convention and that to backed by the government. 

Yes that is right, India Gaming Show 2017 was organised by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and supported by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology . With a total of 6 countries taking part in the event, it was a stellar display of what wonders and technologies the gaming industry has and also acted as a good premonition of how big it can become if taken seriously.

Take for example the talk show hosted on the Japan pavilion, which was the partner country in the event. The session explained how Gainax a well known anime production company has been making anime based on and around the Fukushima area and it's culture to attract people to the city which was stuck by a massive earthquake and left by people in a barren state. They are trying to restore the city of Fukushima to its former glory and even used an old and broken school building as their animation headquarter. The Japan pavilion also saw some musical performances by Japanese artists, one of which who actually spoke in Hindi and played 'Gulabi Ankhen' on his violin. The Japan pavilion also had a host of posters and life-sized cardboard cutouts of famous animes. Korea was the guest country in the event and hosted a lot of playable game titles like Sniper Girls, God of Soul, Heroes Will etc.

Sony PlayStation India had one of the biggest stall and for a good reason. They showcased the yet to be launched PlayStation 4 Pro and eager enthusiasts got to have a go at Sony's latest and most powerful console yet. The PS VR was also up for playing and it was a great sight to see joyful smiles of people experiencing Virtual Reality for the first time. Speaking of VR, even HTC had their Vive VR headset on their stand, where you could play Fruit Ninja and some other games in VR. One of the most interesting VR showcases at IGS 2017 however, was by Loop Reality. They had an actual Hero cycle mounted on a stand. You had to paddle in real life to move in the game. While the in-game graphics were not revolutionary, it was the way the demo tricked your brain into thinking that you were actually climbing an incline and made you brace for impacts that made it stand out from the rest.

At the event I also got to get my hands on the yet to be released game Nier: Automata. A demo of the game was up for playing at the Square Enix stand. Many might know Square Enix for making world famous titles such as Tomb Raider, Final Fantasy and Hitman.

But it was not all about the foreign companies and people. The first sight that one actually came to see in the hall was a big stage with gigantic LED screens where the best player from across our country battled in games like DOTA2, CS:GO, Street Fighter and more. Although it was not just the main stage that was set ablaze with the spirit of competition. Zepetto Games, the maker of a very famous Counter Strike like online first person shooter game, Piercing Blow, was also having matches of its own with two teams competing to reach 100 kills (in-game) before the other. Similarly Indian game developer, PlayIzzOn had a pavilion where they showcased their celebrity based games like Being Salmaan and Sachin Saga.

Samsung launched their latest curved displays with quantum dot technology as well. These curved monitors offer a wider colour gamut and higher brightness levels with a fast response time of 144Hz. Their dual hinge stand bolted to the displays was just as amazing as the display and allowed you to not only set the height of the display but also rotate it sideways.

For the hardware buffs there were mouth watering overclocked systems from Republic Of Gamers, Gigabyte and HyperX. Needless to say, the gaming performance of these rigs were beyond word. I mean you don't get to see Doom running at a steady 120fps everyday! Enthusiastic cosplayers were a common sight because the event served as the other big opportunity for cosplay showcase after Comic Con. You could also buy action figures of some of your favorite anime characters like Goku, Sabre and Luffy.

At the end of the four magnificent days, people had content hearts as they left the premises and hopes in their eyes to return to an even bigger and better India Gaming Show in 2018.