If much remains to be done, Africa could become a true eldorado of video games in the coming decades.
On the occasion of the second edition of the Festival of Electronics and Video Game Abidjan (FEJA), from 23 to 25 November, the general public and professionals were able to attend the most important event and the most representative of the video game industry in Africa. Several dozen countries of the continent were represented.
First, a first success was to bring together more than 40 pro players with e-sports tournaments. They shared a reward of 13 million CFA francs (about 20,000 euros) on classics such as FIFA Street Fighter Fortnite or candy Crush. Such a "cashprize" is new, and it supports another goal of the FEJA: to highlight the video game industry in Africa and the job opportunities it can bring.
The event is an international showcase for the sector, but it also aims to show the full economic potential that video games represent. The gaming market alone has grown from 92 million to 500 million euros in just four years. If we add that of consoles and export, the global sector represents almost 900 million euros.
Games become more and more consistent and complex, they require more and more people to work, and new training is required: from the sound designer to the chief marketing through the designers, graphic designers or programmers.
Sidick Bakayoko, founder and CEO of Paradise Game, a major video game company and main organizer of FEJA, tells France 24:
"We can easily see a million people hired in the West Africa gaming industry by 2025 […] If we want game developers to start joining us, we need to make sure they see good examples of African companies in the sector. […] We really want to help developers, which will impact the entire market. "
A market with immense potential
For the moment, the African gaming industry does not even represent 1% of the global market (estimated at $ 120 billion), but according to Serge Thiam, director of digital strategy at Stay Connect, in 2014, there were 23 million players on the market. continent today for more than 500 million players, mainly thanks to the rapid growth of the smartphone among these populations.
The room for improvement is absolutely gigantic for the African continent, which has a population of 1.2 billion people (potentially double in 2050), half of whom are under 25 years of age. Of course, big structural problems are still in place, including the high costs, including import, that slow down the PC equipment. This being the case, mobiles could be a first solution to break into the market. Another concern is that the Internet is not equally accessible in every country and the monthly bill can still reach a hundred dollars in the least developed countries in the expensive development of the necessary infrastructure.
Nevertheless, the new generations arrive with great ambitions and, failing to offer competitive salaries to attract developers, African studios can count on their national intellectual resources. Moreover, as we have seen with the Asian market in recent years, we can not approach by "copy and paste" each region of the world in its ways of consuming a medium. This is what the analyst Thierry Barbaut, head of digital strategies at the NGO La Guilde, recalls:
"If you want to develop a game, by being Ubisoft for example, without knowing the African culture, it's almost impossible, especially since the African culture is not uniform on the continent.It will be regionalized. does not play the same way and with the same codes in Egypt, South Africa or the Central African Republic, it will be necessary to develop local know-how […] to have real games that are acclaimed by the players. "
It is still a bit early to advance on the future of the gaming industry in Africa, but without making projections too risky, it is clear that the potential is there and that initiatives like those of the FEJA are all indications that suggest a rapid evolution of the sector.
Source of article News Africa
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