The Africa eSports Championship, a game show contest, is returning for its second consecutive year, this time in the midst of the ongoing global novel coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. The question is whether the continent is going to be able to handle the massive increase in this market’s customers.
The industry has experienced huge popularity thanks to people being housebound in Africa and around the rest of the world. The virtual contest is scheduled to take place in November 2020 and looks set to be a huge hit already, especially with the younger generation. The market boom is in line with an increase in emerging technologies, for which we have this demographic to thank.
Membership has increased, with Congo, Kuwait, Malta, Morocco, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan joining up in line with the industry’s growth trends. The federation now has a total of 88 members.
Inside the Event
AEC, the continent’s leading eSports federation, has teamed up with LudiqueWorks, the award-winning game publishing organisation, to produce the Africa eSports Championship. The goal is to foster alliances between different countries and give young people here the chance to develop their talents in eSports and video games by giving them a method of showcasing it.
Douglas Ogeto, LudiqueWorks cofounder, is both optimistic and realistic about what the African game developer’s market looks like going forward. He stated that there’s a pool of untapped talent that needs to be fostered so that the next generation of games have global appeal in terms of content.
Game development in Africa was valued at US$104 million in 2014 and skyrocketed up to US$570 million in 2018, a growth of 500% in four short years.
Can Africa Cope With Demand?
Sidick Bakayoko, Managing Director of Paradise Games, was part of a panel at the 2020 SBC Digital Summit Africa, and thinks the continent will be able to meet the growing demand very soon. He stated that Africa already has the numbers, which are steadily growing, and that the way people view video games is changing slowly but surely. He said that the general population is already starting to view eSports as more a part of regular entertainment than before, which is great for the industry, and that new trends being adopted will add to the momentum.
