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The Pan Africa Gaming Group launches today, with 10 companies coming together to grow Africa’s gaming industry to the next billion gamers.
The group of 10 game studios presented at the Africa Games Week 2022 event in Cape Town, South Africa. The group wants to grow the gaming industry in Africa twice a year to take advantage of the rapid growth of young people with internet-connected smartphones on the continent.
Neither company is important enough to be able to compete with global players or to individually bear the cost of educating the market. By coming together under one umbrella as PAGG, the studios said they will have substantial benefits of scale, skill diversity and access to capital, which they could not obtain as individuals.
The group, which represents 10 African countries, includes the following studies:
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The PAGG will be governed by a founders’ council that will combine many of the leading gaming entrepreneurs from across the continent. They will be joined by Peter Kihara (ex-Goldman Sachs & PwC) as Group CFO and Jake Manion (BAFTA-nominated Game Director at Aardman Animation in the UK) as Group Creative Director.
Each studio will maintain its sovereignty and autonomy when it comes to things like branding, leadership, and financial independence. The founders will work together collaboratively, voting for or against the proposals and resolutions presented to the founders’ council.
Dawit Abraham, CEO of Qene Games (Ethiopia) and spokesperson for PAGG, said the network was formed to enable Africa’s gaming industry to unlock the world’s next billion gamers.
“Together, we represent more than 200 professionals and eight different languages,” Abraham said in a statement. Our team has over 30 years of experience, leading some of the world’s leading game companies, including Ubisoft, Electronic Arts and Aardman Animation. We have produced more games for mobile, PC and console than anyone on the continent. Most importantly, all members of our network are committed to #GamingForGood, harnessing the power of gamification to create a positive social impact in our local communities.”
The group is developing and publishing locally relevant content that engages with African gamers. Despite the massive audience growing on the continent, there is still very little relevant local content in Africa, according to Manion.
“We are creating a portfolio of casual games for mobile devices that are fun, non-violent and gender inclusive,” Manion said. “Our games are Made-In-Africa, For Africa, with African heroes wrapped up in local culture, music and environments. This allows our players to see themselves reflected in our games, which makes all the difference.”
PAGG’s more than 100 existing games entertain, engage and educate. Harnessing the power of gamification, the group is creating fun ways to solve some of the continent’s challenges, including healthcare, education, women’s empowerment, and climate change.
PAGG also brings together the African game store “Gara” and “AfroComix”, the largest African eComics publishing platform. Through these, PAGG will have a channel to distribute its games linked to Africa’s dozens of diverse payment platforms, including mobile money, airtime billing and credit cards.
Extending this effort into the future, PAGG is equipping and training the next generation of game developers in Africa, creating new jobs for young people across the continent. As an example, the Nairobi Game Development Center is a 6,000 square foot community co-working space that will be replicated in each of the African markets to train, incubate and house the next generation of talent.
“One of our core values is not just to build a game collection, but to incubate the game industry of tomorrow in Africa,” said Eyram Tawia, CEO of Leti Arts in Ghana, in a statement. “There is already a wealth of incredible talent on the continent, with more graduating from top-tier game development schools like Rubika every year. However, most graduates are relegated to remote work for clients abroad due to a lack of job opportunities in the local game. We’re going to fix that.”
a big market
Africa has more than 400 million Internet-connected smartphone users. This is more than all of Europe and more than the United States, Canada and Mexico combined. That number has been growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 20% and is expected to reach 680 million by the end of 2025.
According to a new report from the African Development Bank (AfDB), Africa has the fastest growing middle class in the world, tripling to more than 300 million people in the last 30 years. The continent has a median age of just 19 years (EU = 44 years, US = 38 years). In a study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), the top five countries in sub-Saharan Africa alone already spend $37 billion annually on mobile gaming/mobile-based sports betting, demonstrating the huge audience willing to spend on mobile entertainment.
Gaming hit $180.3 billion in revenue in 2021, according to market researcher Newzoo. That makes it bigger than the movie and music industries combined. And Africa is following in the footsteps of other big markets like India and China.
By coming together as a group, PAGG aims to strengthen the industry, creating more opportunities for job creation and economic opportunities in the game, in Africa. Their goal is to share resources, skills, and market access, to allow each of them to make better games and reach many more potential players than they can in their individual countries.
And the group aims to put Africa firmly on the map of the global gaming industry, awakening the world to the reality that Africa is a young, interconnected and talented continent with thousands of years of legends and stories to be told
The group will form a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO), which will share governance responsibilities.
Each studio in each country will maintain its sovereignty (ie brand, leadership, financial independence). The founders of all studios will collaboratively oversee the direction of the group through the founders’ council. Like DAO, each
The founder will have government tokens to be able to vote for or against the proposals and resolutions presented to the council of founders.
The group plans to expand across Africa and include many more game studios. The PAGG is already in talks with other gaming companies in the Ivory Coast, Morocco, Nigeria, Madagascar, Uganda and Zambia. One of PAGG’s core values is gender inclusiveness.
The group said there are more than 11 million gamers in South Africa alone, and a 2019 report by the GSMA, an association of mobile network operators worldwide, said there are more than 747 million active mobile users in Africa. sub-Saharan, representing 75% of the population.
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