Locals urged to venture into African gaming industry
LOCAL entrepreneurs have been urged to venture into the African gaming industry which is expected to grow into a US$300 billion industry in the next three years.
One of the 100 Most Influential Young Africans for 2018 at the Youth African Awards and also the founder of the innovation centre, Tech Village, Mr Takunda Chingonzo said the expansion in the industry will result in various opportunities that local entrepreneurs can explore.
“The African gaming industry is expected to grow significantly in the next few years so entrepreneurs should take the leap and venture into this industry by taking note of which components they can produce locally. Opportunities in this industry include game development, gaming, branding, marketing, sports casting, e-sport teams and streaming which will play a key role in the US$300 billion industry in about two to three years to come,” said Mr Chingonzo.
He urged the corporate sector to take up marketing opportunities that can be found in the gaming industry and invest in the sector.
“A lot of marketing nowadays is formed on gaming mechanisms or strategies as opposed to just paying for adverts on the internet and this is an opportunity that corporates can take advantage of by engaging local game developers to build games around their products. Corporates should begin to understand the opportunities that are in the gaming industry because that is a way that they can tap into the US$300 billion ecosystem,” said
Mr Chingonzo.
He also said Tech Village is working with a game development and gaming organisation in order to make gaming accessible to many people.
“We are working with an organisation called Shift Space who are into game development and gaming which means they understand the technicalities behind gaming. We are also working on trying to lower the costs of access because bandwidth has become a very big limiting factor in gaming,” said Mr Chingonzo.
Shift Space founder, Mr Jabulani Sibanda said the organisation was seeking to support both the game developers as well as the players.
“The gaming industry has two elements which are the gaming which most people are aware of and the gaming development which is the building of those games so Shift Space is trying to bridge the two by supporting those that are building the games and also those that are playing the games because both those scenarios are symbiotic therefore they have to work together. Shift Space has two divisions which are Mutambo for gaming and Game On for game development,” he said.