MENA Games | 2024 Guide To This Fast Growing Games Market

What is the MENA Games Market?

Games are a surging industry across the Middle East and North Africa, and the region holds huge promise for the future of the industry. Together there’s almost 500 million people in the MENA region, 60% of which are Arabic. It’s also growing very fast and the MENA video games industry is projected to be worth over $10 billion by 2026.

There’s an appetite for success among both domestic games studios trying to crack the market within the Middle East, as well as among international investors and supporters like Kwalee who see its potential. It’s important to recognise the incredible diversity across this 15 million square kilometre stretch of the planet - people speak a range of languages and dialects with deep cultural differences.

As part of Kwalee’s focus on MENA, we’ve visited The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in conjunction with NEOM and Digipen, both leading the way in propping up game studios in the country. KSA has come leaps and bounds over the last 10 years in infrastructure, resources and modernisation, both economically and socially. Especially in gaming!

Go to Riyadh and your perception will be shattered - it’s very commercial, metropolitan and modern with western brands and is very welcoming to outsiders. They know because of stereotypes that they need to make people feel like Saudi is a friendly and relatable place with diverse interests and a willingness to learn from others. The games industry here has this spark of potential and curious passion.

Why Is The Games Industry Growing in MENA?

Driving the growth of the games industry there is the so-called MENA 3 - Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt - who are putting a heavy emphasis on the sector. This has been accelerated by significant sums of government funding. For example, the Saudi royal family have launched their Vision 2030 to step up their national ambitions, with the Public Investment Fund actively managing approximately $925 billion in assets. Entertainment, leisure and sports, including gaming, is one of their 13 strategic sectors.

There’s a huge range of exciting entertainment development, from sport, the film industry to casinos. For example, the Kingdom Arena broke ground in 2023 and holds the world record for the highest capacity indoor covered stadium. It hosted Anthony Joshua and Tyson Fury boxing matches and is now the home of star studded Al Hilal SFC. It’s not a surprise that with this level of high profile entertainment investment, the games industry in the MENA region is set to grow dramatically as well.

Why are MENA governments investing money in the games industry? In part it is to modernise, but it also helps to diversify their oil rich economies with long lifecycle industries like entertainment, tech and media. It’s also an instrument of soft power where the governments of MENA countries can promote their values and culture through games at home and abroad. Time, money and attention are all flowing into countries like Saudi Arabia.

What Are The MENA Games Success Stories So Far?

A range of companies have already struck success. The most notable example is Savvy Games Group, wholly owned by the Saudi Public Investment Fund with a goal to progress the national strategy in games and esports. They have scored headlines with their $1 billion stake in Embracer Group and acquired Scopely, creators of smash hit Monopoly Go, for $4.9 billion. They’ve only used a fraction of their budget, so expect more headline games and acquisitions from them in years to come.

The recent MENA Games Awards 2024 highlighted a range of other talented developers coming into the spotlight. For example, Best Publisher went to Tamatem Games and Best Developer went to Madhook, each based in Jordan. The MENA Game of the Year went to Riyadh based Sandsoft, who partnered with American studio Jam CIty to make DC Heroes & Villains.

How Are Other Companies Getting Involved in MENA?

Unsurprisingly, the opportunity has been spotted by companies outside of MENA with many lining up to get involved on the ground floor. Global games publisher and developer Kwalee has been involved as part of the annual Level Up Accelerator program delivered by the DigiPen Institute of Technology.

The accelerator is part of NEOM - a special economic zone being fueled by $500 billion of investment from the Public Investment Fund of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and local and international investors. We’ve supported two cohorts so far, working with developers as expert advisors and judges of their business plans and financial projections.

The accelerator is nurturing hot prospect new studios, including the very talented Fahy Studios who signed a Development and Publishing Agreement with Kwalee off the back of the program. A range of international publishers, such as Kwalee and Canadian RPG studio Artisan now have a foothold in this high growth potential region.

Many of the biggest tech companies in the world have also entered the market. AliBaba Group, Microsoft, Google and Amazon offices have all opened in Riyadh, creating a tech hub akin to a MENA Silicon Valley. Since providing physical spaces for offices to move into can be costly, some authorities such as Dubai have offered incentives such as waiving taxes.

What Are The Challenges Faced By MENA Video Game Companies?

Studios in MENA have incredible talent, vision and enthusiasm. However, as it’s still a professionally immature market and there’s a gap of entrepreneurial experience, there’s challenges for MENA game developers to overcome.

This is why Kwalee is supporting in a mentoring role to help studios get publisher-ready and have a business plan that prepares them with the infrastructure needed to produce reliable hit games. Studios benefit from seeing what a potential hit looks like and what steps - and decisions - need to be taken to get there.

We had the opportunity in a recent visit to meet Royal Princes in Saudi Arabia and discussed the state of gaming in the country - they see it not just as a side project but one that goes right to the top. It’s an embryonic and early stages industry right now and they recognise that the solution isn’t just to throw money at the project, but also to invest time. This is why the educational infrastructure is essential.

Technical disciplines and subjects need to be embedded into educational systems to allow for flourishing games growth. While some people have studied gaming orcoding, the breadth of technical skills are not necessarily built into the wider curriculum yet.

Developers have the expertise to build games, but no streamlined process from ideation to global launch. This is why Kwalee is developing an Arabic language version of its new Hitseeker mobile publishing platform. It streamlines this learning with a knowledge base and academy.

When developers are ready to move onto CPI testing, it also has this functionality and will help them learn from early stage data which projects they should progress, pause or stop. Many developers producing indie games for PC and consoles are also hitting a wall of complexity, with mobile being a good option to learn fundamentals and ship prototypes.

Aggressively testing ideas is key in mobile. It’s tempting to focus on making ‘amazing games’ but you need to also answer the commercial ‘why’? Hitseeker gives the retention, installs, session time data that’s needed, teaches you how to read it and helps you understand why you need it. It has the tutoring mechanism to learn new skills and the strong process and tools that are required when you start from stage 0.

Thoughts from a MENA Games Studio CEO in Saudi Arabia

Hani Hashem, co-Founder of Fahy Studios, told me: “Working in game development feels like a dream. I never thought this could become a viable career path for me. MENA, and especially the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), are massive consumers of gaming. Our love for games knows no boundaries; I even recall playing Pokémon Red in Japanese, although I spoke none, only because the international version never reached our market until late.That being said, we’ve always had the desire not only to consume, but also to create games.

“Starting a game dev studio in Saudi was not easy. At the beginning, we faced strong societal scepticism, and had to discover our technical gaps the hard way. However, this also presented an opportunity for growth and collaboration. The game dev ecosystem feels like a close family here and our level of ambition is unparalleled. We are all committed to changing perceptions, producing success stories, and proving the economic potential of gaming in MENA.
 

“Our partnership with Kwalee is an incredible step in that direction; we want to accelerate our learning curve, build expertise, and launch global games that are made here in Saudi.”

What’s the Future of Games in the MENA Region?

The future of MENA games is very bright and will be fuelled by lots of investment and developers who are very passionate and are doing an amazing job, especially those that have had limited resources and exposure to tools. All the teams we worked with as part of the LevelUp accelerator had working prototypes, and were willing to listen, change and make important decisions.

We don’t yet know whether the players of future games developed in the MENA region will be. Some studios want to make games targeted at an Arab speaking population, others want to go global. Some games could do well in the West, but some genres like dating narrative games just won’t cross the cultural boundary.

Countries like Saudi Arabia have large youth populations and they’ve emerged open to western culture and ideas, pop culture and entertainment. They’ve grown up with more access to western ideas and in the next 5-10 years this will influence what types of games they make. Cultural changes and easing of rules, such as relaxation of the hijab, have helped people be more confident in the cross-flow of culture.

There may not be an immediate MENA game hit right now but there’s no shortage of talent or passion for development. People are delighted to tell you about their game with extreme passion - reconnecting on LinkedIn - and showing a drive to succeed. Good people with excellent skill sets that need a publisher to take them from stage 0 to stage 1.

It’s time for them to enter the same race as other studios - as they’re just not running in that race at the moment. We’re so excited to see MENA games studios bring a new set of ideas and innovation to the global games market.