India, Feb. 21 -- Old-timers like to believe that the past was a simpler era. In gaming, it really was. Teens in the early '00s recall holding LAN parties - linked PCs that let a group play against each other as a game CD heated up on one player's CPU. Neighbourhood gaming centres were where one discussed strategies for Quake, Counter-Strike, Need For Speed, Age of Empires and Unreal Tournament. If you had a good enough PC, decent dial-up internet, and a summer to waste, you could hit global rankings right from your home, while your parents wondered why you never went out.

Broadband changed everything. It opened strategy, sports, action and racing games to the world. Gamers were no longer pasty geeks who crouched in front of the PC. They...