Gaming
Mumbai Comic Con 2025 levels up, plays host to epic Indie Game Utsav
MUMBAI: Hold onto your joysticks, folks—Mumbai Comic Con 2025 is gearing up to be a high-score event! Forget Batman and anime cosplay; this year, indie games are the real superheroes. With the inaugural edition of Indie Game Utsav, the spotlight’s firmly set on made-in-India PC and console games. It’s time for homegrown games to finally drop the mic—or controller—in style.
Set for 12-13 April 2025, at Jio World Convention Centre, Indie Game Utsav brings together over 40 stellar indie games from India, ready to dazzle audiences at Mumbai Comic Con. Backed by big-hitters like Xbox, Xsolla, Specter, and Nodwin Gaming, the festival also boasts IGDA India as its community partner, making it a gamer’s paradise on steroids.
Given India’s surging gamer base—132 million on PC platform Steam alone and PC gaming contributing 22 per cent to India’s video game revenues—Indie Game Utsav is perfectly timed. It’s not just about showing off some shiny new pixels; it’s about nurturing India’s thriving PC and console gaming culture.
The brains behind this gaming extravaganza is Avichal Singh, makers of the smash hit Raji: An Ancient Epic. Singh explained, “Indie Game Utsav wants to pave the way for upcoming quality indie games from India to find success just like Raji, we are aiming to resolve long existing B2B and B2C problems for indies. I’m grateful for Nodwin’s support to help us celebrate India’s best and brightest indie developers at Mumbai Comic Con.”
Nodwin Gaming co-founder & MD Akshat Rathee echoed, “Nodwin started with two guys who just loved PC gaming, so supporting indie developers feels like coming full circle. We’ve always believed in the incredible talent of Indian indie game creators and that their work should be easily accessible to gamers. Indie Game Utsav at Comic Con is just the beginning—one of many steps towards making gaming more open and exciting for everyone.”
To help Indian games level up internationally, Indie Game Utsav is also connecting local developers with top-tier global publishers like Krafton, Garena, Epic Games, and more. On top of that, special digital meetups will see publishers such as Devolver Digital, Rawfury, and Plugindigital ready to scout the next big gaming sensation.
And that’s not all—various pre-event initiatives are lined up to sharpen the skills of indie devs, from intimate sessions with Rawfury and Epic Games veterans to casual mixers and global showcases through MGN Indie Game Events in China.
Gaming
Dream Sports sees 100 plus exits after gaming ban forces overhaul
Company splits into eight units as real money gaming law hits revenue.
MUMBAI: For a company built on fantasy leagues, reality has suddenly rewritten the rulebook. More than 100 employees have exited Dream Sports, the parent of Dream11, after the company reorganised its operations following India’s ban on real money online gaming. The shake up came after the Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, 2025 came into force in August 2025, prohibiting games where users deposit money expecting winnings. The regulation struck at the heart of the fantasy gaming industry and dramatically affected Dream Sports’ core business, wiping out about 95 percent of its revenue and all of its profits.
In response, the Mumbai based company shifted into what chief executive officer Harsh Jain described as “startup mode”, splitting its operations into eight independent business units in December.
Around 700 employees were reassigned across these newly formed ventures based on their experience and interests. However, roughly 15 percent opted to leave the company.
A spokesperson for Dream Sports said many of those who exited were experienced professionals accustomed to running scaled businesses rather than early stage ventures.
“Since some of these employees were experienced with running high scale businesses and not startups, around 15 percent chose to leave and join other scaled companies or start ventures of their own,” the spokesperson said.
Despite the departures, the company noted that the attrition rate is only slightly higher than its earlier level of around 10 percent before the ban. Dream Sports now has close to 950 employees and is not currently hiring, choosing instead to focus on stabilising its existing workforce.
The restructuring has transformed Dream Sports from a fantasy gaming company into a broader sports entertainment platform. The eight units now operate independently, each focusing on different segments of the sports and technology ecosystem.
These include Dream11, sports streaming platform Fancode, sports travel service DreamSetGo, mobile game Dream Cricket and artificial intelligence initiative Dream Sports AI, which includes sports analytics platform Dream Play.
Other ventures include fintech product Dream Money, open source initiative Dream Horizon and the philanthropic arm Dream Sports Foundation.
As part of cost saving efforts, Dream Sports also relocated its headquarters from Bandra Kurla Complex to Worli earlier this year. The new office, called Dream Sports Stadium, brings teams from its various brands together under one roof to improve collaboration and operational efficiency.
Jain had earlier said the company removed bonus lock in timelines for employees hired in recent years, allowing those who wished to leave to exit with pro rata payouts.
“We want people who are fully into the startup mode and willing to work for it, and we will share that reward if it comes,” he said.
Founded in 2008 by Harsh Jain and Bhavit Sheth, Dream Sports was last valued at 8 billion dollars after raising 840 million dollars in 2021 from investors including Falcon Edge Capital, DST Global, D1 Capital Partners, RedBird Capital Partners, Tiger Global Management, TPG and Footpath Ventures.
The new gaming law has forced several companies in the fantasy gaming sector to either shut down or pivot their business models, signalling a significant reset for one of India’s fastest growing digital entertainment industries.
