LogInIn this research, 80 Level Research team aims to present insights on the consumer market in Africa (the economy, game audience and their preferences, and also payments solutions) in order to equip the region's development decisions with facts.
Foreigners often look at Africa or South Africa with the attitude of “yeah, whatever,” but the reality is that they have no concept of the amount of stuff being done here: it’s massive. Obviously, there are no big AAA Studios like Blizzard or Ubisoft, but there are many extremely gifted artists, developers, and programmers living here in South Africa.
Much like the rest of Africa, the majority of gamers in South Africa play mobile games, and that is because hardware is expensive. The country is very far away from everything else, geographically speaking — getting things there is really expensive, and there are not many manufacturing capabilities. This drives the cost up. There is also a high degree of unemployment, and gaming is ultimately a luxury. All these factors push the consumer market away from paid, premium experiences and expensive consoles, and more towards free-to-play experiences.
The language barrier exists throughout Africa. But if you have offices in Africa, you will still be able to use English as an international language of business. However, you can’t find a lot of people speaking English in some regions (like Algeria, Tunisia, Ivory Coast, etc). So, having someone on the team who can translate materials in these languages is a plus for the company and it’s always good to have local experts or consultants while doing something on this continent.
When it comes to translations, it is not much of a problem, except for in countries like Guinea or Kenya — and in Nigeria, they speak Pidgin, which is a mixture of English and another language. But for countries like Zambia, they speak English, and they are okay with games being in English — it is no trouble for them.
In South Africa, at least, they make games for Western audiences because that is what is commercially viable. Africans still play these games, though, but that is because they play Western games anyway. The largest game on the continent is FIFA.
African consumers just want new games; they don’t particularly care how they are themed — Angry Birds, Clash of Clans, PUBG Mobile — all of those are huge in Africa; They are not particularly African, so just reskinning those games to cater more to an African audience doesn't lead to any certainty of success in the region.