The video game industry is not experiencing the Covid-19 crisis, especially in Africa. 53% of Africans are under 20 years old. This figure will reach 72% in 2050, and more than 35% of young people in the world will be African. This, and other factors, means that the gaming industry will experience inevitable Africanization.
The gaming industry will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in Africa of 12% during the forecast period 2021-2026. The increasing availability of game consoles and the democratization of smartphones, as well as the rejuvenation of African populations are major factors in the popularity of video games in Africa.
African youth are therefore essential for the future of this industry. 83% of gaming consumers worldwide are between 25 and 35 years old. It is a public that is beginning to be unworthy in the eyes of the gaming industry. The latter sells a product that requires a constant consumer, hence the growing interest of video game developers in Africa and its demographics.
Traditional media are finding their way
Video games continue to progress parallel to that of cinema, television and technology. It's a question of means, most video game producers work with studios in the exploitation of motion capture (mocap), acoustics technologies, and often hire screenwriters and actors from the cinema and film industry. television.
And in this context, we notice more and more Africa in world film festivals and in television series. African directors are making new inroads with the launch of locally produced original content on Netflix and Amazon, among others. Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda and South Africa are currently the main video game developers on the African continent. Between these four countries, there was a growth of 38 million mobile gamers and more than 2 million on other platforms between 2019 and 2021.
In the four countries in question, the rate of smartphone ownership reached 83% in 2020, up from 43% in 2016. The gaming industry brought Kenya $ 88 million in taxes on the importation of two types of consoles. only in 2020. In South Africa, the telecommunications regulator (ICASA) recorded 47 million new subscriptions to mobile gaming services in 2018.
The preponderance of mobile gaming
Although the whole of Africa consumes fewer console and PC games than a country like France or South Korea, the popularity and accessibility of mobile video games has sparked a technological revolution in Africa.
Direct adoption of smartphones without going through cell phones is bad for good for Africa. This has enabled several African countries to avoid the tedious process of establishing traditional infrastructure and has favored newer technologies. Satellite internet connection, for example, has enabled faster networking at lower costs compared to marine cabling. The latter, although efficient, requires continuous maintenance, cable ships and agreements between all the countries through which the cable passes.
Only nine African countries are connected to the Internet through the SeaMeWe3 and Metiss maritime hubs. Other African countries have been investing in satellite connectivity in recent years, a less expensive solution than cabling. This solution is also ideal for mobile gaming in Africa, which is by far the most popular. Games are often suited to an unstable connection, and do not require high bandwidth performance from the client side.
However, the biggest tech companies in Africa have launched a maritime cable project that covers all African coastal countries. The project is called 2Africa and will not see the light of day until 2024.
A promising industry
The boom in smartphone purchases and the growth of the Internet are not the only factors favoring gaming in Africa. African video games have also increased online shopping. This instance led to the formation of the mobile money market in sub-Saharan Africa, further with more than half of the world's mobile payments in Africa alone.
These conditions showcase the untapped potential of the market with increasing monetization standards in gaming applications such as paid and subscription games, and product purchases in games commonly known as 'pay-to-win'. , among others.
A 2019 comparative study by the American Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) found that smartphone games accounted for 24% of overall forms of entertainment in Africa. In addition, this percentage, beyond the containment boom during the pandemic, is expected to continue to increase steadily for years to come due to the growing number of mobile games and the emergence freemium games.
The growing youth population attracts more investment in the region. For example, in May 2020, Carry1st, a game development start-up, raised $ 2,5 million for all-African video game development. The Rwandan group Mara had announced two budget smartphones described as made in Africa. The company reported that the assembly of the smartphone was carried out in African countries. Thus, the company, as the region's leading smartphone manufacturer, has boosted Rwanda's ambitions to become a regional technology hub and have a head start in the smartphone gaming market.