Fireside Chat: The State of Play in the MENA Market

we are going to launch into our marvelous uh marvelous mina uh track um uh in association with the lovely folk at play three araby um and i believe i believe there's a video from our sponsors which we shall launch into to begin with raw vt as they say [Music] it [Music]

hey cool that looks awesome um we'll hear a little bit more from um from our sponsors play through rb uh shortly but before then let's kick off the track we have a fireside chat with the people who make uh pgc jordan uh possible and i've done so much really to help uh the games industry in jordan the reason as a whole and to help those middle eastern numbers we saw earlier tick along so to join me in in a fireside chat um i'd like to welcome the stage um amjad aloosh of the king abdullah development fund um while he comes along i forgot uh into the interest of the stage i forgot to mention uh the hashtag and and i write it down and now forgot it again i think it's i think it's pt hashtag pg connects i'm

probably that wrong uh but if you wanna i will make pc pc digital thank you charlie save me so hashtag pgc digital if you want to share your views on social media i want to share something you've seen uh just you know share how incredible my shirts are or just uh generally shout out to the world um i understand twitter is quite popular these days um so yes so amjad are you there hello we need to unmute amjad yes hello good morning hello how are you sir how are you thank you thank you very much how are you doing this morning so um what's what's what's the weather like in in uh in in in jordan first of all so in in oman what are you in a man at the moment i take it what's the weather like over there yeah it's sunny and cloudy and sunny and do you never know what it's like in 2020 i do know what it's like because we're there last year it's lovely it's like really beautiful sort of like what i'd call almost

british summer weather in in in jordan so i'm very i'm very jealous it's getting a bit chilly over here um anyway i'm gonna launch him with some questions and and feel free to to you know answer what you can and and don't um if you can't don't worry we've got plenty to get through so um as i said that in the intro we've had the pleasure to work with um the kfd and the jordan gaming lab for a number of years uh culminating last year in the awesome pgc connects jordan event um um i um these um but you guys have been working in uh jordan for a lot longer obviously um uh so so can you tell me a little bit about the history of of kind of kfd and the jordan gaming lab and those initiatives because you've been going for you know many many years and lots of initiatives have been happening maybe you can give an insight into the sort of things that you that you guys are doing when it all started and what's happening yeah thank you chris i would like to thank you for bringing the egc to jordan and selecting jordan and supporting the

gaming community in jordan it's very important to us and as it's an emerging industry in jordan this is very important and we consider it as a milestone actually in the progress of the development of the gaming lab efforts to bring this uh to everyone um i would like to highlight the point of the value added of networking of the pgc and you're doing a great work and i i was watching the introduction and you're doing a great job uh for the whole gaming community thank you that's very nice with cheering up this is very nice anyway nothing about me not for us it's not me really i don't do very much as a team but but but yeah so tell me about about about the jordan gaming lab for instance how long has that been going that's been going around uh i think it's been going about a decade right or maybe it's not quite that long but it's been around for quite a while right yeah it has been established in 2011

it was established as a royal initiative where capd was mandated implementation of this vision because his majesty king abdullah the second pays a special attention to young people and always trying to bring the new stuff and the [Music] edge cutting technologies to them as being described um with the change makers they are the uh most of the jordan community is young people so they they have to have special attention uh jordan is a young community and technology always um attached them and they like that using the technology and the mobiles and other technology devices so the gaming lab was established in 2011 and now we have

seven branches all over the country and we are having also we are running a mobile lab which is basically a van that is equipped with tools uh to for the training and for the orientations and it rules jordan it goes even for remote areas and introducing the gaming industry to youngesters everywhere in jordan yeah and i think this is i think this is really important i think that the gaming labs obviously people haven't seen don't know i mean it's it's a really uh it's a kind of modern kind of campus it's full of equipment uh they have experts providing tuition and lessons and it's it's you know as you say jewel it's a young community but obviously gaming's not got a massive history in in in the middle as a whole and certainly not in jordan so this is kind of starting from almost scratch right and this is trying to to bring in to bring that base of technological

experience and and and skill set up up to scratch and it's an incredible incredibly impressive kind of kind of setup that i know every time we go over we see i was lucky enough to be there in march it's one of the last that was my last trip actually last time was an airplane in fact was going across to her mom which is uh weird i'm i'm missing i'm missing being in a pressurized cabin uh sometimes i just do at home i put like no i don't um but no it is it's incredible and i think um and i think the fact you're doing seven is is amazing as well and the mobile lab yeah as you say it's like a mobile sort of uh sort of education center it's it's a really really really impressive and i think it's starting to you know these things take time but it feels like it's really uh starting to kind of bear fruits um i want to kind of evolve into from this into into one of the the initiatives and i'm not well kind of more of the one of the things i know it's one of the most amazing things uh i've found when coming to the jordan gaming summit i've been for three or four years now and before we did pgc jordan is the balance of female-to-male

attendees which is is quite strange or not strange it's it's normal it should be that way the game's history is consumed by both men and women but it is very different to a lot of more advanced western markets um so i i i it was amazing to see so many so many uh young women engaged and interested in this and and making games and i know that one of the aspects particularly um which encourages that is the app challenge which kind of goes into into kind of schools and encourages um students of you know both sexes but but females especially to kind of create apps can you maybe talk a bit about the app challenge yeah sure that challenge will um uh be having the winners today uh not today with the the this version of the uh friday we can announce it yeah friday friday yes and we had it this year online virtually provided all services and teams developed their games and

last week they have undergone underwent an evaluation and we had already the winners and um young people are doing very well they love games they love creating your their own games as for the gender balance uh you know this is this is a cumulative effort it's not new uh this is not new and it's not actually limited to cafe or the gaming lab uh all organizations or many organizations are providing services uh with uh equal opportunities standard um so it's being done for a long time now and because maybe this is because the balanced almost balanced population in terms of gender we have in germany well most populations are probably quite balanced in terms of but i think it's amazing i i think um i think it's you know when you see people both the the entry

level and also in sort of senior roles at the mobile operators and and game development that there's there's it is it is it's a really impressive thing and hopefully it can be can be maintained uh and and um and and continued so i it's a great it's a real testament actually to to to to the work you guys have put in and i think it could be real strength increasingly as as as you know as the market continues to grow um i i know that you're not a games industry experts you've got other various areas you you kind of work you're working as well but what what are your general thoughts on the jordanian gaming industry at the moment um where do you think you are in terms of kind of progress over the last sort of nine ten years and how how does gaming compare to other industries in in in in the region um either just you know culturally or the size or whatever is it is it now becoming more more of a a respected kind of established industry well it's

i think it's marching steadily we have a number of uh developers we have gaming studios we have a couple of publishers um and it's doing well as for the perception of gaming development people respect anything related to the i.t sector here in jordan so it's yes as a game developer you are being respected here and it's uh decent and uh having a job in the sector is decent and [Music] it will brings you a lot of uh things that uh maybe an uh extra income and um it's very interesting to work in this field uh yeah and rather than from uh playing the game you are now developing the game and this is very interesting to young people i think yeah no it make it makes absolute sense

as you say that the the game's audience is actually i was reading some some some date on this um it's it's pretty huge there is there's actually not just in jordan but across the the region there are uh 377 million players according to i don't know how they work this out this is going on but but 377 million that is almost the same size as a european games you know player audience and it's much bigger than america's like 210 million estimated in america you know obviously the amount of spend differs and everything but but the scale of people playing games is is is huge and and and that's obviously you know comparatively recent i guess it's it's it's uh it's still quite early uh early early days for the industry in some respects as as for the people who are playing games and the expansion expected yes you are waiting uh new generations to come and this is obviously the market is going to

grow more because people here in the arab region like very much to play games and with the spread of the mobile devices and other electronic devices it's more available now yeah yeah no i think i think mobile and mobile especially something where which you know i think the the gaming lab and and the app challenge obviously and other initiatives are kind of focused around and it is in some ways perceived as an easier entry point which is is is a newer technology um do you there'd be there's been a number of success stories you mentioned earlier about a couple of studios we've got people like babel games that were acquired by still front freddy's incredible tamatem are doing very well they're speaking later maiselwood speaking of doing well obviously play through arabi as well can can you expect you know there are a number of indie development studios happening as well can you expect are you expecting more success stories in in the you know in the coming years do you think do you see a kind of growth

of more successful studios of course we will have this and um we are helping um this year or not this year of course not 2020 but 2021 we are expecting to support gaming studios and we we were to launch the um fund for the this serious uh 2020 but unfortunately covered yeah yeah okay so so the fund is that going to be something that helps again establish i know you've already spent you've invested a lot of money it's not like you need to but do you think this is this is this to help studios like get started as proper businesses or what what's this kind of new fund presumably it starts next year fingers crossed what's this aimed at particularly yeah it's more of starting their own businesses and events like this one is very important to developers i think because they need to uh to connect they need to network with uh

special especially this these circumstances that made us to use virtual meetings and virtual connections and working from home principles is are being more likely to happen so developers can work remotely now no problem to work with any uh uh organization in the world you you can just can use the internet and uh but just you need the connection no exactly and absolutely that is a very good point that the the although there's obviously a lot of downsides to it okay we didn't say it'd be an awful kind of human tragedy but from the way the industry is changing it does mean that there's a little bit of a playing field being leveled there where yeah exactly say development studios don't have to be based you know in in in in sort of america or in in europe they can be based wherever and we're definitely seeing a kind of growth

what about um i i know a lot of what what jordan's doing do you have an insight into into other activities happening around the region i've seen there's quite a few um on a kind of consumer level quite a few esports events in place like egypt and dubai and what have it springing up and and i know that you previously at ptc jordan with zane run the imga minas which has been celebrating games talent not just from jordan across the region is that are there other initiatives or other kind of countries that kind of collaborating with or similar things to to what you guys are doing you seeing that happening you know yeah at this at this stage we are trying to introduce and promote gaming industry to jordanians maybe on the next level we can partner with other countries to make to achieve more development or more opportunities for developers but not for at the stage but i think it's spreading out there because you have the esport now uh is becoming something big even in

jordan and you have other countries that aren't it's an industry and uh it brings money and everybody will be interested in having it uh in his country sure yeah yeah no and i think i i you know i obviously slightly bias because we're working with you but from my experience the amount of work that's been put in and just the the structure of society and i think jordan's an incredible you know is is very likely to be a a core center for that for the industry in in the region just because it's you know say it's it's easy to get to there's there's a and it's it's a great place to visit as well so i i i hope we'll do what we can to help to continue to develop the the industry there um i mean every region has its own cultural course um you know obviously this language and and and and religion and other aspects do you think that the local developers you know and one of the things i'm saying earlier is about these 370 180 million

you know sort of mean or arabic predominantly i guess gamers do you think local developers have a big advantage when it comes to creating games for these players because you know they understand you know they understand the basic cultural experience or or or not this is a sure thing of course i think they have the advantage because you know language and culture are linked you can learn the language but it's not easy to learn the culture um you can't over learn it overnight so um people living in their countries and knowing exactly what's going on they can bring this culture inside the game so uh you become interested when uh or excited when when you see something that you relate to or you know inside the game or even even a game that is uh speaking a new language so of course they have the

um advantage of this yeah okay i mean on that note then i guess there's a lot of there's a lot of people we're looking at these look at these numbers and seeing this new zealand report and going wow this is interesting and i'm already i know of several new studios have started across the region um there's also a lot of investment money at the moment like the the amount of money washing around trying to find its way into the games industries is huge and we have many investment investors at this event and many investment uh aspects this event would you would you recommend them that that kind of global investors take a look at a look at investing in studios in this region or publishers look at you know acquiring or working with studios in this region of course i strongly recommend this and uh investment especially in jordan the investment environment now in jordan is very different from what it was years ago the investors will find the warmest welcome to invest in jordan especially in the iit sector and

especially in gaming because people more people are interested in this uh field you can i want to tell you something you can develop a game here in jordan and you find your audience in another country arab country so there are many uh prospects for investing uh in gaming in jordan of course yeah and is there any are there any kind of an issue what's the best way to go is it just they just talk to the company do they need to is there any kind of scheme do they need to set up a company you know if i'm wanted to have a publisher in jordan do i need to you know come to someone to like the kfd or do i kind of set up a business or do i work with an existing what's the best way do you think the best way that is the investment because the government has established a government body that is uh sole purpose is to make things easier for investors they can they can use a lot of benefits and value added and competencies to

uh establish their uh investment in jordan so it's it's better to start with the government okay well we'll we'll get some details of that from you and share that with the the the delegates the event and and because i think there's definitely people interested uh as i say i know still we're very successful with with they're very happy with with babel i know i know likes to say of the play through arabi and tamatem and maisel do incredibly well i'm sure there's other others out there as well um well i can't i've got a couple of questions i'm going to get to i'll start a bit late so don't worry you'll get your time um but you can't have a discussion about anything this year without mentioning the kind of c word uh the kobits 19 pandemic has impacted everybody in some way or another how how has how what's been their main impact on jordan and how has how's jordan the jordan gaming industry kind of holding up actually we have uh converted all our activities to virtual now we are providing the gaming training courses and the capacity building activities

online [Music] other initiatives like the app challenge also have been converted online and it seems like we are uh going to continue with this at least uh for the half of the next year yeah so so that's how we are doing in this challenge but hopefully we'll be back to to real face-to-face conversations by summer and we can uh we're we're really hopeful it'll be able to be over there with uh with you um running pgc jordan again we it's one of our favorite uh favorite and not just because the witness son which is good um um yeah okay i've got a few questions here i'm gonna ask a few questions from the audience here so i'll i'll throw them out you can answer what you can and then we'll push on so um the question here for an outside developer looking to publish in the mena region what is the acceptance for games that

are in english rather than local language i guess that is i guess that is um yeah can you can you you know do english language games work perfectly well or do you really need to be sort of in in in arabic to [Music] be honest with success um so not everybody speaking english but you know the the game inside the game the activity that the game provides or introduced it's not always related to the language so um if you have a story a clear story you can just become very popular in that board there are many um not arabic uh games that are very popular in the hardboard yeah yeah yeah no i can see that that's the case i mean obviously it does help if you can touch on things people care about but but there are global global

themes obviously big games um yes i say i've answered this question what can companies interested in working with kfd do to help well that's an interesting question what can companies are well aware of kfd do they do they you know they want to work with you or invest they get in touch with you are you a good good touchpad i'm sure you are yeah thank you yes of course we were most welcome we we welcome every partnership and everybody that would like to work with us uh for the benefit of young people and the gaming community in jordan well angela's in the meeting system so you can request a meeting there and we can uh we can you know if you want to get in touch or we can i don't know if he wants to share an email with everybody in the world but if you want to get in touch please do you contact us and we can we can connect you if you don't want to go through the meeting system um there's a question about marketing games in the mean region but i won't i know that this is not your your skill set so i'm not going to throw you into that um what you know do you know much about what what games

uh uh what genres are working best in the regional again is that more of a you're okay no you're not i know you're not you're a kind of a broader skill set than pure games but what do you uh do you know what games are working at the moment what's the most popular um i'm not so sure how i can answer this question because i actually i'm sorry i don't have the information that's all right don't worry i i i won't throw that at you because so we've got we have got plenty more people coming up who will be able to uh answer that um uh answer that for you for there um i think i think uh we're pretty much uh at time um we've talked about everything one of my questions um and i guess i guess my final closing question really what's your kind of vision for the jordan gaming um industry and and where do you want it to be in the coming years what are kfc looking what's the success look like for you

um we are looking for more uh people to get uh engaged and involved in the gaming industry and we would like to have more partners to support this already happening march of the development of and the progress we are achieving so more partners more people involved even even we are thinking of uh having i know this is not tomorrow will happen but we will be very happy we will have something in the education system or the universities that promote their gaming because it's very interesting and um everyone can do something in this field yeah and it can generate a lot of a lot of tacks as you just look just look at the fins you just need you just need your ea or your supercell or your 10 tencent or whatever and then then everybody would be wanting to get into gaming so um i think um i've got a question about internship opportunities in arab

countries i'm not sure you'll necessarily be able to answer that but um do you take any internships in in the kft do you look into yeah and inside the cavalry itself no we we don't have but we have a specific program that promotes internship in different organizations in jordan uh it's called darb that means way my way so it supports internship and they can make use of this program for sure okay well i guess so the the request to that question if you want to get in touch with with us um uh yeah then we can connect you in with them johnny can give you some more information about that um uh i'm i'm very happy to be contacted i'm chris at steel media dot co uk so i don't i'm uh i know not everybody wants the email out there but my email is full of so much so much so much spam all day it doesn't matter so i'll help you where i can so um that's our

time i want to thank you so much i've got a light i've been moaning about the british weather and now i've got sunshine i have to close the curtains but um thank you so much uh for for coming this morning thank you again for supporting this event and for your support uh not just of us but of the jordanian gaming industry i think it's it will pay pay dividends uh for for jordan as a whole and we look forward to coming back for many many years to come so thank you very much i'm jealous i'm afraid you don't get a round of warmer paws from the audience because they're all kind of silent but um they're out there clapping in in their own homes so fantastic all right thank you very much thank you thank you very much thank you for what you are doing for the gaming industry thank you very much chris awesome awesome okay you