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School lessons to be learnt on the Xbox
Posted Date: 04 Sep 2007 Resource Type: Articles/Knowledge Sharing Category: General
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Posted By: Niyaz Member Level: Gold
Rating:  Points: 5
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This one’s for concerned parents worried over the time their kids are increasingly spending on gaming. In a first such initiative for Microsoft anywhere in the world, and the first for the gaming industry in India, Microsoft India is taking its Xbox 360 gaming consoles to schools, integrating content with CBSE and ICSE curricula.
Close to 90% of the total 1.6 million gamers in India happen to be in the 6-20 age group, who spend an average of two hours a day gaming. Further, according to industry data, about 220 million students in the country attend school every day. “Add to that, India has the highest focus on education anywhere in the world.
So the country was the natural choice and most important market for us to introduce this edutainment project,” Microsoft’s country manager (entertainment & devices division) Mohit Anand told ET. “The thought process is that we could add a new dimension to Xbox — that of an educational device. This way, we could address growing concerns of parents that gaming cuts into kids’ studying time,” he said.
The project, which Microsoft is working on through an exclusive three-way deal with digital educational content provider Educomp Solutions and game developing company Lakshya Digital, will involve rolling out three products in phases spanning curriculum ranging from classes III to XII. Phase I of the project will cover maths, science and social studies, with three discs allocated to each subject.
The first product off the block will be for maths, and is expected to be ready by December. “We decided on maths first because according to CBSE statistics, the maximum number of failures among school-going children happen in maths,” said Educomp MD Shantanu Prakash.
While the CBSE and ICSE content is being provided by Educomp, Lakshya will develop and transform the content for the Xbox platform. According to Mr Prakash, the study methods are being made as simplistic as possible to comply with CBSE and ICSE curricula.
Microsoft says the prices will be affordable. “It could be in the range of Rs 1,000-1,500 per disc. Parents would end up paying the same or even less than, say, what they would on private tuitions every month,” said Mr Anand. The Xbox console, launched in India a year back, is available at a base price of Rs 19,990.
The investment in the project is being made by Microsoft India. The company says the Xbox edutainment product could find an international market, riding on Educomp’s presence across the APAC region. The company intends to launch a fresh title every six months. Depending on consumer demand and market dynamics, it could extend the product beyond the three subjects and to languages beyond English.
Besides retail stores, the product will be promoted through seminars, contact programmes in private and government schools and parent-teacher interactions. Microsoft will leverage Educomp’s affiliation with 6,000 schools across the country to promote the product.
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