What Has Prompted The African Online Gaming Boom?
The main reason behind this expansion in development – and as we’ll see take-up – in mobile gaming has essentially been getting the basics covered. This stems down to technical infrastructure, with broadband, wifi and mobile data connections becoming far more common both inside and outside major cities. Add to this the release of many ranges of budget app-compatible phones and within a few years all of a sudden a market numbering into the hundreds of millions of potential customers has been created.
Allied with this growth in technical capacity is also the progress that has been made in programming and electronic skills, with many successful start ups having been founded by young entrepreneurs who have completed high level training and educational courses overseas. The set-up and running costs for these companies are much less in Africa than in many alternative locations, helping keep the costs down for fledgling new businesses too.
The most interesting factor of all with these companies is the diversity of the products that they have been releasing. While some might factor in online gaming apps which also serve to reflect their local cultures, others are happy to follow the ‘free casino games slots no downloads‘ model that has served so many western companies so well.
How Can We Account For The Market Having Such Interest In Online Games?
A major factor in the popularity of a wide range of online mobile-friendly games across Africa has to be allied not just with technical accessibility, but also demographics. The overwhelming majority of African nations have very large disproportionate numbers of younger people, who not only are interested in gaming as a cultural past-time but also use their mobiles heavily in a social context. Naturally when phones can also manage gaming apps, they can expect to be downloaded and used heavily.
Many of the most popular African gaming companies, for example South African based Thoopid and Ugandan company Kola Studios have proven that they are capable of delivering top-level games that would be utterly at home featured on any market in the world. These involve MM games, first person shooters and adventure themes that always appeal to younger markets. On the flip side some of the most popular studios within the African gaming download sites are those produced by Afroes or Leti Games which take a very local, culturally specific approach to developing gaming apps with a strong educational context too.
Essentially the market is highly sophisticated for a continent so full of emergent economies, with a variety in choice and quality that is often intellectually much superior to a great deal of repetitive content produced by western development studios. Make no mistake there’s a great deal of talent and interest in online gaming across Africa, and it’s a sector that will continue to grow rapidly over the coming years.
