Monitors are a very important component when it comes to gaming. Irrespective of the fact whether you are a console gamer or a PC gamer, you need a decent monitor to ensure that you get the desired experience and immersion while gaming. When it comes to monitors, there are a number of monitor brands available in the market. They offer a wide variety of features, panels, aspect ratios, and stuff.

However, when it comes to the best brands, you will always find LG on top. LG has lately been focusing on the gaming segment by launching products targeted especially for gamers. At Gamer Connect Kolkata 2019, we got a chance to chat with Mr. Sammar Deep, the product manager at LG. An insightful conversation about gaming monitors, and indeed gaming in India followed.

EXCERPTS

IN: What is LG doing at Gamer Connect Kolkata?

I’ve been working with LG for close to 9 years now, and I am currently handling the monitor segment. I’ve seen monitor grow from 19 inches screen in a box to products having so many features. These products have different audiences, and I’ve seen the category grow throughout my tenure, and LG has grown in the industry as well.

Gamer Connect is a very special event for us. We are a monitor manufacturer, and we manufacture components, not the whole system. Our channel is such that it flows through multiple different channels and by the time it reaches the last end user, the product already changes three times. We don’t sell to the end customer because you as a customer, you won’t be buying a monitor separately, or a graphics card, or a processor. You will be buying a system.

So we now had the challenge that how do we connect with the end user, and the offline retail in India is not where you can actually go and experience the products on the shelf, decide and ask someone properly about the same.

IN: You mean the infrastructure is not upto the mark?

The infrastructure is actually not there. It’s zero. So we had a tough time connecting with the users. So we started this event three years back and got a massive response. So what we are doing here is we are getting people in, showcasing our latest, relevant products, and letting them have fun and experience them.

IN: Tell us how you were able to carve out a career in the gaming industry, and where you hope to eventually end up?

I actually don’t have a career in gaming to be precise, I’m more in the display market but gaming is a very pivotal segment for us. It’s more about understanding your target audience and serving them. For me, gaming is as important, although the sales and contribution from gaming are not very high. Gaming still remains on the top of the consumer segment.

Gaming excites everyone regardless of their age. I was a gamer, but I don’t game anymore. So gaming is a very interesting thing. No matter who you are talking to, you might be talking to a mid-age person, or a housewife, everyone is associated with gaming in some way or the other.

Be it mobile phones, or consoles or PC, gaming is very popular. Everyone is interested in gaming, and everyone will like to play if given the opportunity. The gaming audience is very special for me and LG makes amazing products for the gamers out there. We launched our sub-brand Ultragear in this event which strengthens our focus on the gaming category.

IN: What are your views on the Indian eSports Industry and where do you expect it to be a few years later down the line?

Well, it’s growing at a rapid rate, and it’ll eventually explode. We are just waiting for better bandwidth and coverage which is limited to only major cities right now. We are waiting for the time which is to come soon when the broadband will penetrate into all the cities and remotest parts of India and the broadband speed will increase. So we don’t need to think about eSports or anything else, once the infrastructure is there it’ll pick up like anything. It’ll grow and it’ll explode in the near future.

The only challenge is, the audience knows the games, they know about eSports, they want to follow eSports but they don’t know how to go about it. Most of them don’t know it can be pursued as a career, and they can make money out of it.

Parents have the opinion it is a waste of time, while it is not. We are exposing this concept of eSports to the audience and there is still time before we focus on eSports, maybe a year and a half, but right now we are focusing on gaming as a category.

IN: What’s LG’s approach to the gaming community in India, and how does it look forward to taking it to the next level?

So gaming has always been there. When I was a kid, I used to be a gamer and everyone around me was a gamer. So it’s not a new concept, what is new is that all these gamers coming together.

The communities, the information, is all new. You are pursuing a career in gaming and you are connected to it. You know a lot because of the information you consume and you get to talk to so many people. You get to talk to gamers, brands, and what not. This is what the whole concept behind this is. Everyone is coming together.

Earlier it was very difficult to reach out to gamers, very difficult to interact with them, let them know what LG is, and understand what they need. We were present there but neither we were visible nor the gamers. Now is the time when we can actually reach out to them thanks to mediums like Gamer Connect and others. We are just going all out, and we have launched a sub-brand for gaming. It’s a very top priority category for us and it’ll remain like that for the time to come.

IN: Lastly, leave a few words of wisdom for the younger generation and our passionate readers who might think the same way you did when you were their age.

I was a novice, we would play whenever we had an opportunity. Things are different now. You have computers, you have broadband. Things were not the same when we were kids. There were only a few titles we would buy and we would play it for six or seven months before moving to the next one.

So everyone should have a passion to follow apart from your mainstream studies, or career. You should have a passion for something. It can be outdoor sports, or indoor sports, or eSports. Just follow your passion and don’t get sucked into it. It might happen in all sports, you might end up playing too much cricket too. Don’t do that, but do follow your passion. It gives you the opportunity to interact with so many young smart people. It gives you the opportunity to interact with community globally. So just follow your passion, and once again, don’t get sucked into it.

What do you make of LG, their monitors and their strategies in India? Lets us know all this and more in the comments. For more such Gamer Connect Kolkata 2019 coverage, keep checking back here at IndianNoob.