Gameloot's Yogesh Advani explains why understanding gamer behaviour, community and value matters more than bigger marketing budgets
After spending close to two decades in India’s gaming industry, I’ve realised that the biggest misconception people have about marketing games is that success comes from bigger campaigns or larger budgets.
It doesn’t.
Gaming has always been a category where consumers are incredibly informed. They watch trailers, read reviews, compare gameplay, discuss releases with friends, and know exactly what they’re buying. By the time they make a purchase, most have already made up their minds. That changes the role of marketing. Instead of convincing people to buy, the job becomes understanding what matters to them and removing the barriers that stop them from making that purchase.
My first job was at Zapak as a Community Manager. This was long before influencers, Discord servers and gaming creators became mainstream. Back then, online gaming revolved around cyber cafés. We organised tournaments, managed communities and spent our days interacting with players who simply loved gaming.
Looking back, those tournaments taught me one of the most important lessons in marketing. Communities are far more powerful than campaigns. People trusted recommendations from fellow gamers much more than they trusted advertisements. The conversations happening between players were often more influential than anything we could communicate as a brand.
Later, when I joined Milestone Interactive, I moved into product marketing. My role involved deciding marketing budgets, prioritising launches and identifying which games deserved greater visibility. Working with global franchises also reinforced another lesson that has stayed with me throughout my career.
Marketing cannot compensate for a weak product.
I’ve often compared gaming to the movie industry. If a movie isn’t good, people won’t spend two hours watching it. Similarly, if a game isn’t enjoyable, very few people will buy it, even after significant discounts. You can reduce the price of a ₹3,000 game, but if gamers don’t believe it’s worth their time, the purchase simply won’t happen.
As marketers, we sometimes overestimate the power of promotion. Great marketing can amplify demand, but it cannot manufacture it. The product has to earn that demand first.
The Indian gaming market changed dramatically during COVID. While many industries experienced a temporary increase in demand, gaming experienced something much more valuable. It attracted entirely new consumers.
Parents started playing with their children. Families bought consoles together. People who had never considered themselves gamers suddenly found themselves exploring titles like The Legend of Zelda because they wanted a new hobby while staying at home. More importantly, many of those consumers continued playing long after the pandemic ended.
That behavioural shift changed how we looked at the market. We weren’t speaking only to lifelong gamers anymore. We were speaking to people entering the category for the very first time.
Understanding that audience also meant recognising something else. India is an extremely price-sensitive market.
Most first-time gamers don’t begin with the latest console. They usually start with an older PlayStation because it offers an affordable entry point. Once gaming becomes a regular hobby, upgrading feels like a natural decision rather than an expensive one.
The same thinking shaped GameLoot.
People often think we are in the business of selling games. I see it differently. We’re in the business of making gaming more affordable. That’s why we’ve built our business around trade-ins and store credit. When a customer finishes a game, they can exchange it and use that value towards their next purchase. Instead of paying full price every time, they continuously upgrade their collection at a much lower effective cost.
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To me, that’s a marketing decision as much as a business decision. Your positioning shouldn’t only communicate value. It should genuinely create it.
People also ask why we don’t spend aggressively on advertising. The reality is that gaming retail operates on relatively small margins, and we’re a very operations-heavy business. Every marketing rupee has to work harder.
That’s why we’ve invested more in building relationships than chasing reach. Instagram has become our primary platform because that’s where our customers already spend their time. They message us with questions, raise concerns and seek recommendations. Our team responds quickly and moves conversations to email whenever required. Those interactions build trust in a way that traditional advertising rarely can.
Looking ahead, I believe one of the biggest challenges for the industry will be affordability. As gaming moves further towards digital purchases, physical games and trade-ins may gradually reduce. That could make gaming significantly more expensive in a market like India, where consumers carefully evaluate every purchase.
Technology will continue to evolve, new consoles will launch, and marketing channels will change. But one principle has remained true throughout my career.
The brands that succeed aren’t always the ones with the biggest budgets. They’re the ones that understand their customers well enough to create genuine value before they try to create demand.
– Written by Yogesh Advani, Co-Founder of GameLoot, one of India’s leading gaming marketplaces. With nearly two decades of experience across community building, product marketing, and gaming retail, he is passionate about making gaming more accessible while building lasting communities around the industry.
