Can India Build Its Own GTA6?

In today’s Finshots, we talk about the Indian gaming industry and if India can bring out a homemade AAA game title like GTA6 in a multi-billion dollar industry.

The Story

$4 billion!

That’s the size of India’s gaming market today. And nearly 85% of it comes from real-money games (RMGs). Think fantasy sports, rummy, poker… apps like Dream11 or A23 where you put down some money for a shot at winning more.

But that world just got flipped upside down. A few days ago, the President signed the Online Gaming Bill. And just like that, all games involving real money were banned. Platforms like WinZO and PokerBaazi (backed by Nazara Technologies) had to suspend their real-money operations overnight.

Now, on the surface, this sounds like a win for public interest. But here’s the catch. RMGs were the real growth engine for India’s gaming industry. These startups are valued at about ₹2 lakh crores ($23 billion), bring in ₹31,000 crores ($3.6 billion) in revenues, and add nearly ₹20,000 crores ($2.3 billion) to the government’s taxes each year. They were even on track to double the industry’s size by 2028 with a 28% annual growth rate. That’s a lot to lose.

But does that mean this is the end of India’s gaming story?

Well, not quite. Because gaming isn’t just about RMGs. Globally, the big money comes from AAA (Triple-A) games — the massive titles made by big studios.

Take the upcoming GTA6, for instance. It’s projected to make over $3 billion (₹26,100 crores) in its very first year. To put that in perspective, the entire Indian film industry made $1.37 billion (₹11,900 crores) at the box office in 2024 — its second-highest year ever. So yeah, one game could out-earn two years of Indian cinema.

And here’s the interesting part. Indian developers are already part of this action. Rockstar Games, the studio behind GTA6, has a team in Bengaluru with nearly 1,600 Indian developers. Ubisoft has a studio in Pune. Electronic Arts (EA) has one in Hyderabad. Global giants clearly see the talent here.

Which makes you wonder — if we have the talent and the market, why are Indian gaming companies stuck chasing only RMGs instead of dreaming bigger and building our own GTA, Call of Duty or Minecraft? That could be the real future of India’s gaming industry, no?

But before we talk about India building its own GTA6, it’s worth asking — what does it actually take to make a game like that?

AAA games sit at the very top of the gaming pyramid. And bringing one to life is no small feat. You need a massive production budget, a large team working for years, cutting-edge game engines, strong storytelling and an even bigger marketing push. GTA6 alone cost an estimated $1–2 billion, took over a decade to develop, and had the backing of one of the largest publishers in the world.

So, India’s challenge really comes down to three things.

First, the money. India’s gaming industry has leaned on RMGs because they’re cheap to build, easy to scale and offer quick returns. AAA titles on the other hand, are a completely different ball game. They demand hundreds of millions upfront, and investors may have to wait years to see any payoff. The bigger issue is demand. Only a small slice of India’s population regularly buys or plays AAA games. Add to that low purchasing power and widespread piracy, and publishers see little incentive to pour money into risky, big-budget projects when the home market itself may not deliver enough returns. It also doesn’t help that funding is already drying up. Equity investments in gaming fell 38% this year to just ₹175 crores ($20 million).

Then there’s ownership. For years, Indian studios have been outsourcing hubs for global giants. The coding, designing and testing may happen here, but the intellectual property (IP), stuff like patents and copyrights, stay abroad. IP is where the big bucks lie: sequels, licensing, merchandising, even movie adaptations. A few homegrown studios like Nodding Heads, LightFury Games and GameEon are trying to change that by building their own IPs. But they’re still miles away from creating something on the scale of a GTA or Call of Duty.

Finally, policy. Just last year, the government hiked the GST on RMGs to 28%. And now, it’s gone a step further by banning them altogether. When one policy can wipe out a booming sector overnight, it’s no wonder studios and investors hesitate to bet billions on a AAA gamble.

So what’s the way around this, you ask?

It really comes down to long-term capital. The industry needs investors who treat games like movies or tech products, you know, big projects that take years to pay off rather than just quick money-making apps. The funding pool is small right now, but there are signs of change. LightFury Games, for example, has managed to pull in investors like Blume Ventures, Mixi and Cred’s Kunal Shah for its ambitious projects.

And with patient capital, homegrown studios can focus on building their own IP, which is the real key. Owning IP means you can create sequels, expand franchises and tell unique stories that travel the world. Just look at China’s Black Myth: Wukong. Made on a $70 million budget, it raked in nearly $1 billion in sales and proved that even a relatively small studio can turn local culture into a global hit.

Policy can play a role too. AVGC-XR (Animation, Visual Effects, Gaming and Comics and Extended Reality) policy in states like Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra, Delhi and Kerala already support film, animation and VFX with incentives ranging from skill development to production grants. And now, with the policy set to be extended to gaming nationwide soon, it could push Indian studios to create and scale their own IPs. Other countries show how powerful this can be. Montreal in Canada, for instance, became a gaming hub with over 200 studios, thanks to government policy and tax credits.

And the spark is already here. Games like Raji, The Age of Bhaarat, and Indus are telling stories with a distinctly Indian flavour. They may not be billion-dollar blockbusters yet, but they’re proof that India has the talent and ideas to get there.

So yeah, India might not have its own GTA6 today, but the building blocks are falling into place. All it really needs is patient investors, stronger IP ownership, and the right policy push. After all, if GTA6 could outsell the Indian box office, then there’s surely no reason why an Indian story can’t do the same for the world. What do you think?

Until then…

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