Bringing the global games industry to Africa's unexplored markets

04.03.2024 - 11:35 / gamesindustry.biz

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Africa Games Week held its sixth edition last December, welcoming over 1,980 attendees to Cape Town.

Over 360 companies were represented, and 93 speakers contributed to the conference track. Over on the showfloor, more than 250 African games were showcased, the organisers said.

While the story of Africa Games Week is intrinsically linked to the South African games industry, it does aspire to represent and celebrate games professionals across the entire continent.

"Conceptually, we've always had this idea that we're building a platform for African game developers to get access to the international market," says AGW co-founder Nick Hall, also CEO of interactive software dev RenderHeads South Africa and CEO of games trade body Interactive Entertainment South Africa.

"The fundamental problem that we're trying to solve is that the global games ecosystem mostly ignores Africa, both as a market and a development community. We're very isolated. We don't have easy access to things like GDC, Gamescom, or the Tokyo Game Show. Some of it is geographical, because South Africa is just far from everywhere. We can't quickly pop over to Gamescom. It's a 14-hour flight minimum, and that makes it expensive.

"But then also there are logistical things, like visas are always an issue. And there's this global distrust of Africans. There's an assumption we're going to come in and steal your jobs. So, it is difficult for African developers to get access to that international market."

Before Africa Games Week became a thing, Hall and co-founder and director Rex Bowden (also managing director of Catalyze, a business agency focused on championing South African firms) used to run trade missions for around 20 South African studios to go to GDC and Gamescom.

"We did it a couple of times," Hall continues. "And it was good, but there were two main restrictions on it: we could only take South African studios – because the South African government was backing it – and there were also restrictions on who we could take. So, it wasn't ideal, but it did the job.

"When that funding programme got cancelled, we were like, 'Okay, well, we've seen the positive effect. Let's expand the scope. Let's make this for Africa. And if we can't get our developers to the world, let's bring the world to us'."

The duo settled on December for Africa Games Week so it wouldn't clash with any other major games events and to take advantage of the summer weather.

"It's [not] a very hard sell to get developers from snowier regions [where] it's winter, and it's dark," Hall says. "It's like, 'Well, you get to come to Cape Town for a bit'! It motivates people to get on that 14-hour flight. And I think we're