SA’s gaming industry held back by lack of financial muscle

30 November 2016 - 10:53 By Roxanne Henderson
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When gaming federation Mind Sport South Africa (MSSA) called for local developers to submit games to be considered for its 2017 competitive circuit‚ no one came forward.

According to expert Nicholas Hall‚ the reason for this is not because there’s no local talent but rather because creating competitive‚ multiplayer games is a financial headache.

Hall is the chief executive officer of lobby group Interactive Entertainment South Africa (IESA) and creates opportunities for developers to grow the local industry.

While an IESA survey shows the industry is growing‚ money made from local sales is a pittance.

So when MSSA asked local developers for competitive games‚ like those traditionally played on its circuit‚ it is no surprise that there were no takers.

When it votes for competitive games to be played provincially and nationally at its annual general meeting on December 4‚ it will instead consider popular international games like Dota 2‚ Fifa 2017‚ League of Legends‚ Call of Duty and Mortal Kombat X.

“The bottom line is [developing those games] does not make financial sense‚” Hall said.

“The problem with multi-player games is you wouldn’t want to target South Africa but rather go international. [Local demand] accounts for 0.2% of the global perspective. It’s a very small market.”

But getting games to do well abroad requires a marketing budget with muscle. International gaming corporations have marketing budgets cost costing “more than it does to develop the game”‚ Hall said.

Another fact that has local developers swimming upstream is that those who are buying games in SA are not spending their cash on local games.

IESA statistics show that in 2016 only R72 700 came from the sale of local games for entertainment.

MSSA’s Colin Webster said it is disappointing that the government is not doing more to help local game creators “take on the big boys”.

He believes that if the government backed them‚ they would have the cash to bankroll the development of popular competitive games.

“Some developers in this country are absolutely brilliant but they need to move towards [making] games people want to play.

“Government needs to support developers in something that can make money.”

According to Webster‚ that is what the South Korean government did and last year that country’s gaming industry is huge. Market intelligence firm Newzoo reports that gamers worldwide will generate a total of $99.6 billion in revenues in 2016‚ up 8.5% compared to 2015. The Asia Pacific region accounts for 47% of the market‚ with China‚ Japan and South Korea account for the majority of these revenues.

“It is hoped that one day locally produced and published games will make it onto [the] centre stage‚” Webster said.

If the local industry is not developing games for tournaments‚ what is it doing?

Digital arts lecturer at the University of the Witwatersrand Hanli Geyser said many local developers are focusing on innovation with experiential games.

According to IESA‚ there are 31 active game development companies in the country‚ employing 255 people.

These companies are valued at about R100-million‚ the lobby group said.

Of the games they are making‚ 81% are for entertainment‚ 11% are serious games meant to teach the player something‚ and 8% are for advertising.

– TMG Digital

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