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Attack of the small screens: Africa eyes mobile gaming boom
CAPE TOWN, Dec 2, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – An army of humans laid waste to an
alien colony as South African video game maker Simon Spreckley
enthusiastically controlled the action using his phone’s touch screen.
“The penetration of mobile devices in Africa is huge. People often have
two or three phones, which is pretty crazy,” said Spreckley, 40, who wore a
T-shirt emblazoned with “Brute”, a four-armed muscled alien from the game.
“So that’s one of the big pluses and why we are trying to do this,” he
said, promoting “Invasion Day” which will likely launch on Apple’s App Store
and Google’s Play platform in 2019.
The multi-player tactics game, set in the 1950s, is the brainchild of
Spreckley’s eight-strong team at VSUS, a Cape Town-based developer.
Many other African developers are also opting to tailor games for mobile
devices instead of traditional consoles like PlayStation or desktop
computers, leading to a surge of handheld innovation on the continent.
“There’s enormous potential in Africa because the continent is primarily
mobile,” said Sidick Bakayoko, 34, the founder of Paradise Game, an umbrella
group for developers in Ivory Coast.
“We’ve done a jump and instead of first going with PC, we’ve gone directly
to mobile,” he told AFP at last week’s Africa Games Week convention in Cape
Town which brought together African games coders, developers and artists with
top executives from Sony and other industry giants.
“With the emergence of a number of low-cost smartphones, it’s now very
easy to purchase a mobile phone,” he said while video games enthusiasts tried
out the continent’s latest digital offerings on screens nearby.
– ‘Jump on the bandwagon’ –
Bakayoko said that the increasing number of African gaming products for
handheld devices mirrored the explosion of mobile banking and financial tools
like Kenya’s Mpesa on the continent in recent years.
“So there’s great potential for video games using electronic payments…
it can work well with Kenya as a prime example,” he said.
“There’s no reason for Africa not to jump on the bandwagon.”
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Another part of mobile gaming’s appeal over other platforms in Africa is
that it consumes less data, which can be slow or costly.
“In Nigeria they even get games pre-loaded on the phones because data is
so expensive,” said Evan Greenwood, 37, the director of South Africa’s
leading computer game studio Free Lives.
“There’s the potential (in Africa) — but data has to get cheaper and the
right games have to be made.”
Invasion Day will be free to download, but players must purchase upgrades
from within the game.
Spreckley hopes Invasion Day will catch the eye of a major investor, but
many African mobile games developers have struggled to turn their creations
into cash.
– ‘In more people’s hands’ –
Ivory Coast’s Point Point, based on a traditional children’s game played
using paper, and Madagascar’s Gazkar, a racing game featuring the island’s
ubiquitous Citroen 2CV, have proved popular with mobile gamers — though not
readily profitable.
But Google’s decision in June to allow games developers from African
countries including Nigeria, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Tanzania to make
money from their creations sold on its Play store could revolutionise the
sector.
“Most people use (Google) Android here,” said Sithe Ncube, 24, the founder
of Zambia’s Ubongo Game Lab.
“People haven’t had a way to monetise their mobile games. People have
actually been developing apps for a while but there hasn’t been a way to use
it as a business model,” said Ncube who wore a spiked choker and had a streak
of bright purple in her dark hair.
“If Google Play can let us do that, then that’s a good platform for people
to start on.”
In 2017, accountants PwC said “revenues for console and PC games will lose
market share to social (and) casual gaming” like that offered on handheld
devices.
Africa’s video game industry, currently worth $310 million, would be worth
$642 million by 2021, the firm added.
Spreckley said that choosing the mobile support for his game would mean
“we can get it in more people’s hands quicker”.
“You’re not reliant on people buying big expensive consoles and then
products off the shelf.”
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