Africa Games Week 2024 and the Future of the Continent's Gaming Industry

This year’s event features notable industry insiders like Kish Hirani, former head of development services at Playstation; Ben Myers, CEO and Creative Director of Nyamako Studios; Nthabeleng Phora, Gauteng Film Commission’s project manager; Hind Toufga, Business Developer at Dashy Studios; and David Olamide, Co-Founder and CTO of Dimension11 Studios.

The theme of leadership is particularly timely. “We see a clear gap between those with leadership skills and those without,” Olamide tells OkayAfrica. He argues that most African developers operate independently, lacking crucial team management and collaboration skills.

“They just want to build things,” he says. “I’m trying to bridge that gap so we can have potential industry leaders who hold strong positions and have strong voices and stances. These are values that Africa Games Week is trying to focus on, to bring more awareness to.”

This leadership challenge mirrors broader industry constraints as funding remains scarce and developers often pool resources to mitigate commercial risks. Olamide notes that this lack of funding has resulted in a risk-averse industry. “People play it safe. They don’t experiment. Many of the great games we have today came from experimentation. Only a handful have had the opportunity to convince an investor or a publisher to support them. We need that financial support, probably in micro-grants, to encourage developers to keep building.”

Olamide also points to a talent gap between African developers and those in other regions. “It’s a huge challenge, particularly for us as studio founders. How do we hire people to join our team? How do we work on ambitious projects when we can’t even find the talent to do the work,” he wonders.

Yet, the potential is unmistakable. Africa’s gaming market is projected to grow to $1 billion this year, driven primarily by mobile games and esports. In 2022,Nigeria overtook South Africa in gaming revenue, generating $249 million compared to South Africa’s $236 million.

Olamide is cautious to accept these numbers at face value, pointing out that most of the money does not stay in Nigeria. “We’re consumers, not producers. The generated content comes from outside the country, and we pay for it. The numbers, however large, do not reflect how good our industry is. The developers creating games here earn nothing.” He states that the trend results from population dynamics between the two countries and notes that Nigerian culture has evolved to embrace gaming.

A 2024 report on the state of the African games industry stated that the continent is “on the cusp of a real sliding doors moment.” Some of the trends that have emerged include African studiosbeing acquired by international companies, as was the case when 24 Bit Games, a South African studio, was acquired by Annapurna Interactive.

According to Olamide, the African gaming sector is full of opportunities waiting to be tapped. “We can bring our media into a new format for our global audience, not even Africans alone. We have a lot of cultural elements, lore, and other things that we can push to the world. And it’s mostly untapped.”