Panel: MENA's Rising Star: How can the Region Compete on the Global Stage?

[Music] we have a panel and uh I would like to invite Craig Chapel from steel media and his lovely panelists and I will let Craig introduce everyone we're all here and Pack's audience again what we love to see so uh so uh yeah so again hello everyone uh thanks thanks so much for attending today uh we've got a great uh session here um I'm Craig Chapel head of content at pocket gamer. is um I'm the least

interesting person up here we we'll get to the panelists uh in in a second we we're going to talk about uh Mena's Rising Star how can the region compete on the global stage so we're going to talk about the rapid growth of the Mena Market which has been supercharged by big Investments across the the Region's games industry uh and they'll discuss opportunities in the Middle East and North Africa where Investments are need where investment is needed and how local Publishers can become um Global powerhouses so quite a lot to cover we we've got like 40 minutes so but we'll do it um but yeah we'll start with a few introductions so uh yeah if you could please uh tell the audience who you are and a bit about yourself so we'll start with you cadri and we'll move down yes is this on is it uh you need to turn it on

testing yes uh hi everybody uh my name is Kadri Hara I am uh currently working with uh cisu game ventur so investing in uh early stage uh game studios and uh also I am uh the founder of uh game Founders which is a games accelerator that's been around for uh 12 years already and uh we actually ran a program for two years in uh in Saudi Arabia and uh also I was uh myself the of 966 a g Savvy games uh group company and uh I was building the games ecosystem in in the region for the past two years so that's why maybe I know a few things about the region uh hello everyone my name is Alexandra kumova I'm co-founder of Futura digital is a consulting company focusing on Legal Financial and accounting services and uh we have uh special focus on Game Dev companies a

lot of my friends and clients are from uh are game developers or Publishers or investors in the this sphere and uh I'm here uh we are based here in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and for two past years uh uh I I've seen significant uh uh increase of request for me as a lawyer to relocate businesses and teams here to GCC region and uh I think that's why I'm here uh to share my expertise from legal perspective hello my name is John Lacy I've been in the Mina Region 20 years um working in the gaming industry for about 15 years um 2020 joined 10cent games um country manager um of our level infinite brand which U publishes games like uh pubg mobile and honor of Kings that's it

uh hi everyone I'm Aisha from Dubai that's Muhammad bashid fund for small and medium Enterprises uh we're present here at the event sponsoring um as Dubai next it's a crowdfunding platform uh that's been open for the last 3 years we are supporting people who have ideas um to get their business model funded uh through the community and then have their um plans on Earth launching the businesses in Dubai hello hey everyone uh I'm Mohammad zaher uh I'm an analyst at Niko Partners we are a market research company in the gaming industry we've been covering the gaming industry in Asia and Mena for the last 22 years and we're doing market research data sets and we look at the market from a analysis perspective to offer strategic uh solutions for companies that wants to invest uh in the

Mena industry in the in the gaming industry uh so that they can take a strategic business decisions in the future basically all right thanks thanks very much everyone so we'll we'll get cracking on the uh on the big questions so uh the first kind of obvious question I guess is is what's been driving uh the growth in the Mena regions kind of games industry and also I guess one from an industry perspective and two from kind of a consumer and spending perspective I don't know like Muhammed you've obviously got a lot of data with with Neco Partners You' be looking into it so one thing we can start with and like uh we found out in the last of our reports uh according to our surveys that for example like 71.5% of uh gamers in the Mena region which is Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates and Egypt engage with Esports at some capacity so that means they are watching Esports or they are uh

participating in content creation or they are uh engaging with esorts basically so that's one one of the biggest drivers for the gaming industry like as from The Gamers perspective at least so yeah that's that's one one of the factors so anyone else catrick I uh I think that a lot of the the growth and the visibility and everything is uh is also driven by the government support I would say because uh there's a lot of events we are right now in one of these events and also if you look at uh for instance Saudi Arabia as well there is an event every every two months almost so there is ample opportunity and the governments are also uh trying to encourage everybody from the industry to go to uh to these places and and to see all the opportunities and uh I mean very obviously also money I mean there is a lot of investment uh coming from the region uh maybe it is

not uh super structured yet but there is uh there's definitely resources there that will hopefully form into uh fabulous game funds and uh and then it would be even more uh opportunity for the industry to come here I have a fun fact to add um in terms of business ideas that we got um uploaded on binex or published to the community to to get fundraising uh we had doubled the number of last year's uh gaming business ideas so hopefully uh those people are participating here in Hall number five so uh hopefully we'll come out with good number of success stories after this event that's great did you it looked like you were burning to answer the question otherwise I mic or I answer I'll answer no the um I think the the one of the biggest points um when it comes to mina is we've been predominantly a console First Market for the majority of the last decade so 2010

2020 um console dominated the Mina Market with a few titles really uh FIFA Call of Duty these sorts of titles and then post sort of 2018 2019 we become very much a mobile First Market and that's really changed the landscape um of how people view the media Market how people view publishing how people view localization of their resources um orts uh I think we're one of the few markets when it comes um to a sort of Step change uh in uh the device that people are using that certainly hasn't happened everywhere in the world uh if you if you live in Asia and you play games in in Asia then you're very familiar with with mobile games and and the variety of mobile games there are and we don't even have that level of variety but I think what's really really driven um the gaming industry in The Last 5 Years and will continue to drive the gaming industry in Mina is the adoption of of users to the mobile device um and that's something that we really believe in as a mobile first publisher as uh as well so I think that would be a headline for me

uh is the growth of mobile gaming yeah I actually agree with John about this because when we look at the demographics of the of the gamers right now and then we see like the younger like right before when we were like in the console on the PC The Gamers demographics were a little bit on the like 25 and above but now the entry age for gamers to start in the mobile mobile gaming it's getting lower so so that's why we see like Gamers starting from 14 and up uh playing uh video games on their mobile devices so yeah it's also like one one of the biggest drivers of the market right now I I actually wanted to touch upon one of the things that was mentioned there about Esports so why do you think there's such big investment in Esports in this region so maybe globally some Esports games that you think were massive weren't actually as profitable as you they were and as the the Esports

winter at the moment so but why is there such a big opportunity here do you think well one of one of the biggest drivers for the Esports or Esports being very big in Mana is the government Investments of course and we can see like uh the big prize pools that it's being offered either from the sponsors or from the government entities that's sponsoring the events as well as the community Revol revolving around the Esports games so if there's an esport game or like a game with a competitive element then the gamers they create their own Community within the game and then they compete with each other and they play with each other that's one of the biggest drivers for Esports so if for example like in my country in Egypt there we see a lot of local Esports like uh competitions going in the internet cafes for example and we can see this also like happening in the UAE and Saudi Arabia so yeah that's one of the biggest

drivers as well the community itself and the community that's being created around the Esports uh so uh one of the things I want to ask we kind of touched upon it there as well is uh you know we're we're it seems like we're in the early stages of met Mena's growth on on the global stage so where do you think investment is needed right now in the industry and I guess one of the questions we were talking about yeah there's money being invested I guess bringing studios in but how can governments and local companies support education initiatives for example and develop local talent to kind of grow that pool of expertise I know Kat if you had experience kind of with game found yeah sure I can spend an hour here um but I I think in in general everything is being done and and we were actually discussing about this before that it feels like all the questions are the same and all the answers are the same from previous year and this is this is true because if you

talk about education you don't do it in a year so everybody just needs to uh keep on investing in this and keep on working with universities keep on finding uh internship positions for uh for uh young people that they can uh they can practice what they learn and and all of this it just takes time but I think that a lot of the uh governmental initiatives in all of the countries are actually in in really good uh places so there are both uh uh things been done together with universities as well as incubators accelerators popping up everywhere so I think this is this is something that needs to be done just let's say rinse and repeat for a good five years and I think then it will be uh a different kind of uh panel and and different kind of answers that we can give here that was great awesome and I I I uh and I guess do does investing in the industry mean bringing in kind of international companies to set up here or is it about

investing in local companies or maybe both obviously obviously 10 cents you know kind of coming in and I I don't be a an opin on that but that was going to be for me yeah um look the ageel question do do you do you bring expertise in from outside or do you you know use expertise that are already here um I I think you know the if you've been to the Middle East enough and you've been to Dubai and you've you know I was saying yesterday in another talk that if you if you look at the region through the lens of Dubai um you discover that it's a combination or a balance of of many many things um so I'm not just saying that as a PC answer um it is it is a balance of of local expertise and international there are things that people do not have the expertise in here fundament and they will not for maybe a few decades few generations and people appreciate you know that that

that that they need to bring people in from the outside um uh and then the other way around there there are things that you can't do if you're sitting in Singapore or LA or or London you have to have the insights and you have to have the people here and that's at all levels of seniority it's not just about people tend to think that when you talk about Talent it's about young people but it's not it's at all levels you know you need a you need a balance at all levels there it's not just about the youth um but I think what's sort of the the driving force behind it with your question on orts and on Talent as well and everything um and where is this all coming coming from I think it's down to having a um young leadership who grew up as you know loving games you know if you have a if you have someone in charge of a sovereign weal fir that plays games then it's pretty good yeah you know it's a perfect storm so yeah that's a that's a simple way to look at it um but yeah I think that's inspiring I think there's a there's a lot of ways to be inspired in the gaming industry here um you know I don't speak from the perspective of of other countries because I've been here

20 years so I only have the perspective from here but I think it's easy to see the opportunities in in this in this region uh in Dubai particularly it's easy to get your hands on those opportunities um and it's easy for young people to be inspired by that and to and to work with a good balance of international local talent altto together so I I think that's what it is it's um it's about you know localize all your resources with the right with the right blend of talent and then you'll have success yeah and uh echad from uh legal perspective I see this attitude of government to bring uh foreign talents here and uh to make easier and more transparent process uh of being here uh from legal perspective as well because uh uh uh for example UAE has a very liberal immigration legislation and it's quite easy to obtain uh resident visa for you and for your team to to be here and uh also you can see it in documents

because uh each country has its vision for example UAE katar Saudi has their Vision 2030 and uh all this Vision have very same uh plans to bring foreign talents and to keep them here and uh they Implement a lot of initiatives how to do it how to support it how to subsidy them and how to make uh all process of legislation more attractive to these foreigners uh so I I I was thinking then about uh like this is more of just a comment of the question but uh the like the growth of say like China's games industry and growing International kind of tens comes into that in the sense that I think you had in Japan like G and DNA kind of they grew really big locally but they actually struggled to expand overseas even when they set up Studios overseas whereas like with tensent there seems to

be like a deep integration with with kind of different regions and so they've been able to expand kind of successfully sorry it was just a comment we had a couple of more uh success stories as um startups from Dubin next who who have been selling within the Mina region um whether it's a tangible project product or um a website that's open from the by free zone to towards everyone um so yeah we had a couple of successful entrepreneurs that I want to um mention you can go ahead on by next. and um see where they've reached and um yeah at the end since the link is there between the supporters and the entrepreneurs with ideas um and the government support is there so there's more potential towards those kind of success stories within within time one of one of the key questions I wanted to ask uh during this panel is You' got a lot of Publishers in in in

Mana that uh to correct me if I'm wrong I've seen as kind of local publishing partners with expertise in the region but how do these companies actually break out and go Global so like what's the next stage and how do we get there but do they need to like my my question rather like what I feel is what what the what the industry in in the region really needs I mean obviously we have a few and I'm not I I'm not trying to make their role smaller but I think there needs to be more local Publishers looking at the local players because uh right now I mean obviously there are a few uh but this is something that uh that still needs to be reinforced like I think we still need to have these stories of uh of global games being localized to Mina and having the success story so I think there is still even room to um to grow here and to have the potential for for the Publishers to emerge here um but um I mean I think going going globally then

it's it's a totally different business plan so it really depends on on what the company was built for I I would say it comes back to sort of content in some regards and pop culture so you know there is a there is a bigger movement I suppose on the entertainment front um in the region uh whether it's film music whatever genre you know to try and push local content out globally so if you look at suppose the cycle that's gone through in say Korea with K-pop no one was listening to K-pop 20 years ago um so and I think the biggest challenge say for the Asian businesses um over the last few decades has been how do they tap into pop culture how do their brands become relevant um whereas you you easily compare them to any us brand or UK brand they're they're leading pop culture but that has shifted so I think you know at a sort of macro level you've the the Middle East needs to have that presence and that dialogue with global users and I think an Avenue for that is

gaming so we see more and more and more of our local beats if you like within our within our games transcend to other countries so easy one is Ramadan if you go 10 years back yeah there might have been some Ramadan content put into games but now as live service comes along and and and live content you can easily plug in Ramadan content and that element of culture on a global level um and then that goes again for many many other things so it could be um a company or a brand from from any industry or any genre that plugs itself into the gaming industry um through some kind of attractive content that is then rolled out to other markets it might not be Global to start with but you might see content that is enjoyed here enjoyed in Southeast Asia so that's a way for developers um it's not just developers the the whole industry to have presence elsewhere um and get recognition primarily from Gamers if Gamers enjoy content from the region then that will encourage people to make games you know

in that in in that guys so that's I think that that's probably a more likely scenario of how the gaming industry can transcend from here to the rest of the world and it's probably already not probably it is happening the the the Ramadan I the Ramadan example is just a very obvious one but there are lots of other examples of where that that happens sorry I thought you were about to I thought you about to try read the ever having yeah but yeah I'm sorry I sorry I thought you were going to say something no uh no just just me but I I actually wanted to kind of add on to that so one of the questions here you kind of answer it there but you know what what makes a successful game in in Mena and and why are some game col of some I guess triaa games more successful than others in Mena markets and then what strategies do you employ to Foster and engage uh to Foster vibrant and engage player

communities but does it start from you you do actually have to create a game that's for the local market or would you just look I'm going to make a game for a global market I mean uh I can answer that like uh so one of the things that's really important about making a game for minuta or like having a game successful in minuta one of the key factors is having it well localized and not just localized but like now we are taking it a step further and being like C culturalized you know so the game is not just having an accurate Arabic uh translation or Arabic localization but the game would touch actually the people in the region and at least like deviate away from the regular stereotypes that we can see in the movies uh in the video games I'm sorry which is like now the gamers are kind of getting tired off you know like just seeing like the whole world like City turn and like weapons and being

like all in the desert and everything like this uh gamers are starting to get tired of this stereotype and they want something to be more representative of their culture and more uh touching with them as a young audience like we mentioned before as people that are young and they are like take Savvy and they want that and the thing is like our Gamers here are like really vocal about what they want and what the things that they really need about the game so for example like if we are taking this like so like into a macro level I'm talking about it one of the games like a mobile game uh had like a 3% daily active users from the region here right but then like after they localized their game and it was localized well that that number increased it to 80% in 3 months so that shows you like how much impactful a good localization is for a game so that's one of the things that really that really helps game success in the region as well as building a community Community because here Community is really

important like with the players playing with each other and talking with each other so one of the reasons that we saw that uh a lot of board games or like casual games or even some shooter games are really successful is that they enabled the voice chat because people like to communicate with each other when they're playing and they like to talk with each other so therefore that's also like another key factor of a game being successful in the region so yeah and among like really uh there is a lot of factors that contribute to that but I think those are like some of the key factors yeah no that that was a really really insightful answer this thank you so uh one of the question we got as well is you know what role do you see new technologies like AR VR AI web free you know all the kind of buzz terms but what role do you see them kind of playing in the in the growth of of the The Meta games industry we had Jeff just talking about uh a a and AI native for

example uh I mean I'm I'm not a specialist in uh in any of these but uh but what I am seeing especially around uh web 3 is that um I feel that it's it's globally maybe a less regulated field if you look at uh in general about uh what kind of games are built and I think this really presents an opportunity and uh a little bit I also feel that uh Dubai in particular is really grabbing that opportunity to be the first one to be almost like known as the global uh hub for for web 3 and and uh and related programs so I think there there are opportunities in in let's let's say less uh less ventured areas of uh of the industry that uh that the region is is really taking advantage of do do you think though that because we were mentioning about kind of mobile audiences earlier that that's kind of the way to tap growth do you think we're going to see like these Trends but I

guess some of these through mobile so web free is just going to be you're going to access that through mobile here you're not going to access that through an AR or VR platform or a PC platform is mobile still kind of the grow forward for this industry I guess is the question um yeah I would I would say that you know the gaming industry has driven so many Technologies forward already and it will continue to do so so it's at the Forefront of many Innovations many technologies that are um that are not only utilized or brought to bear on those games and on the development process and on the devices um that even from an early R&D stage the the you know the the leading Minds in the gaming industry are are behind some of those those Technologies and furthering them um so yeah I think um it goes hand in hand y uh another question I want to ask you know how how significant has Savvy games group's kind of $ 38 billion investment funds been for generating actually more

investment and interest across the Mena region like I I heard uh I was speaking with nor C at M swards and he was saying that and obviously we've got a lot of investment in Dubai is actually driving other governments to be like oh we need to be investing in this as well just to compete so I wanted do how like I I know you could talk about like the competition I guess between between yeah I I think that competition here one not only through Investments but sure it's it's very huge and crucial thing but also through subsidies as I said and it's very important to subsidy people to encourage them to relocate and uh uh through making this very conservative legislation when we talk about Saudi it's one of the most conservative legislation compared to Dubai for example compared to UAE more attractive uh uh for foreigners and uh I see that Saudi has a strong desire to do so and

uh we see positive trend positive Dynamic how they make all processes more transparent and accessible for people uh they have a special it relocation program for example and uh I I'm sure that you know that uh that they have relocation grants also uh for example for it business you can obtain uh it visa and and it's uh um less than month and uh it's only two two and a half thousand dollar and uh with uh no minimal requirement of capital and with foreign ownership and it's like fairy tale because for regular Pro regular business for regular business license uh it's painful a little bit to establish your business in Saudi and for it business it becomes easier said I see that they has their strategy this one

2030 to encourage people to locate to relocate and uh it reflects only not only through Investments but also through legislation I guess the the question was also a little bit to me so having worked at The Savvy games group for for the past two years I have to say the impact has been enormous but uh you know but seriously I think that um just having the number out there and just having a few of those uh bigger Investments made is something that is enough to have the whole industry's eyes on the region and on the country specifically so I think like even just from a PR perspective I think it's uh it's very much huge and it's also making more it making it let's say more comfortable for uh for other Studios from the West looking at this uh region as now being interested in investing in games looking at games so I

think uh just opening everything up with this uh is something that has uh has definitely been achieved but I think it's not only the The Savvy and it's not only the number that is happening I think all of these news coming from all the different uh countries like everything that Jordan is doing everything that Abu Dhabi is doing everything that Dubai is doing and the fact that everything is happening at the same time this is something that really escalates it uh it further and makes the whole region super interesting I think people are just very positive towards the industry I think that's a that's a big big plus you know the government's very open they want to have a dialogue um they want to explore the opportunities um it might not always be you know about a check that gets signed in some cases it is um but they're you know they're they're looking at the the bigger picture and the bigger impact that gaming can have um and the entire industry can have um and again they they that's not limited just to one one country as every everybody said it's

something that's happening across the the whole region there is the headline Grabbers out there um but that's good as well because again it creates a lot of positivity uh and a lot of aspiration towards that industry that you know sometimes is you know dragged down and through the mud uh right every now and then I want to speak about the competition in this field since the opportunities and the support is there so there's a huge competition when you speak about game creators or people with ideas so it's always how well you can stand out from this competition to prove that I believe in my idea so the community or I'm going to have enough demand um of players uh towards my game so that's a huge competitor to your success too yeah I I can definitely agree with the the government support is is such a huge thing to have for your industry as someone from the UK games industry where is obviously we have a busing indust but you really we've really had to fight for government support especially with tax

initiatives that uh you can just see how important it is when you don't you you can kind of skip a level perhaps don't have to fight as hard to get that because they're already willing um so one of the one of the we got a few minutes left uh I have one more question but unless anyone in the audience has a has a question they want to ask the panel all right I I'll ask I'll ask my last question so uh I guess this is this is a very much last question right so what predictions uh do you have for the games industry in meta over the next five to 10 years you know how big do you think the local market could be how big do you think the just the industry Hub will be like what are your predictions well I can start with the numbers Thane yeah so right now like the the men mena3 Market stands at like 1.2 1.92 billion uh dollars in Revenue okay that's according to our estimates and

this will jump in 5 years to 2.65 billion in revenue and as well as the gamers look so now we're looking at like 68.7 million Gamers across Mana 3 region and by the way so like the UAE for example it accounts for uh 11% of the gamers but 33% of the revenue so it's a really huge Market as a revenue base uh but also like the The Gamers numbers would uh jump in 5 years to like uh 75 million 75 million Gamers so that's like a huge number and with the whole demographics it's like the gamers are getting older or like you know like getting more seasons into gaming from now and then like the younger generation as well like the ones that are like now six and seven and they're like being try like being you know getting used to gaming and getting used to having like this U interactive entertainment sort of like

entertainment in their life so we're it's all going to like all the estimates and everything that points to the direction of the market it says it's going up and it's going to be bigger and more so yeah so that all the expectations about the market in five years or in seven years or in three years they all indicating it's like it's going into the right direction you know any other predictions yes I think that uh Pocket Gamer game Expo Summit is going to be three times as big already next year um I mean but seriously I think that all these uh gateways into the industry and into the region is very important every time I'm seeing a few more faces from uh like Finland from Sweden from from places that you don't really you know select your first Market or your first choice yes hi I mean I me you and uh I think this is this is really cool that we are providing people the opportunity to come here see for them elves look for partners and I think this is this is how

everything evolves but since I am in my heart still you know in the early stages uh in the precede uh round I still very much uh am rooting for the talent because I think it's very important that we have global companies and international companies come here but what is even more important is that the local talent will be upgraded to a level that they can provide uh you know at first Juniors and then also seniors that are experienced from the region and that can really affect shaping their own local uh economy I'm I'm being filmed by our head of Comm so I'll do a Shameless plug as well they download honor Kings today in uh in um fully localized uh Arabic um um yeah look I think the the the the next sort of 10 years uh is super exciting uh for the gaming industry here because of the optimism uh because of the focus on mobile which I

think is just going to explode even further I've said it before but just to to repeat um and I think um the the presence uh of government in every single aspect of the gaming industry and trying to drive that forward and having the right dialogues and particularly what we've seen in Esports um I think you know it's we're now going to witness a a huge change um for the Esports landscape which has gone a little bit into the doldrums maybe in recent times even though it's a very young industry um with the investment that's coming from you know various Nations uh across the region with Esports World Cup coming um uh we you know super excited to be part of that and there's a lot of other Publishers here as well and lot of other developers who've got games in the Esports World Cup so the fact that you know government is trying to do something for the industry as a as a whole um and it's easy to be cynical about these things as well um for various reasons but I think uh it will be the asset test will be how it's received by The Gamers so if the gamers appreciate the Investments The Gamers appreciate the the resources that are

being deployed here and globally then you know that's going to really really change the the mood um and change people's perspective on the Middle East so I think efforts on a global level like the Esports World Cup and the presence of major titles in those you know we're talking pretty much every major AAA that can be played at a at a pro level in and and the Esports genre is there so it's a super exciting initiative and you know they're putting their money where their mouth is yeah um you know okay one one more uh note you know when we talk about uh legislation and uh uh lawers themselves we are talking about providing Arsenal how to make uh everything happen how to turn all strategies into reality and uh I see a lot of changes now and I can predict a lot of changes in future uh we already have here in UAE English law uh directly

applied in some free zones in iggm and DFC so you can just use uh all these precedents from English law all these tools uh for Investments options and so on and I know that Saudi is now um trying to implement English law as well and they announced that they are uh launching new legislation about free zones including English law so we I I hope that they will launch it next year and uh about web3 for example uh in UAE they have a special free zone in rasheim rck da and uh they launched it uh last year as well with a special license for web 3 so all companies now have can uh opportunity to uh have their business uh uh in legal field with real web three

license so yeah I see that there are a lot of changes now and I predict them in future definitely a very exciting time for the industry and no pressure to Chris and the events team 3,000 people next year um anyway uh thanks so much to to the panel please give a a big round of applause that was great thank you [Applause] [Music]