The video games sector in South Africa is one of the largest video games markets and Esports scenes in Africa. The video games sector has overtaken the South African market in movies and music in market value and is still rapidly increasing. In 2016 the South African games industry advocacy group, Interactive Entertainment South Africa, stated that the video game market in the country was worth R2.2 billion (US$ 139 million) whilst the domestic games industry was worth R58 million (US$ 5.46 million) in 2014. A 2021 study by Newzoo and Carry1st estimates that 40% (24 million people) of sub-Saharan Africa's video game playing population were located in South Africa.

Game development

The country has produced to a small number of domestic game development studios such as

Free Lives Free Lives (Pty) Ltd is an independent South African video game developer based in Cape Town. Founded in April 2012 and led by creative director Evan Greenwood, Free Lives is best known for creating the video game ''Broforce'' and has also deve ...

, Celestial Games, 24 Bit Games and Luma Arcade; as of 2022 the only still active developers of the four were Free Lives and 24 Bit Games. A new development studio; BladezGaming, established 2022, has their first game coming out in December 2022. As of 2022 there were 60 active game development studios in South Africa with the majority them being micro-enterprises that employ less than five people; only six of these studios employ more than ten people. Most studios are based in or around the cities of

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

and

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

. Over 90% of South African game development studios report using the

Unity Unity may refer to: Buildings * Unity Building, Oregon, Illinois, US; a historic building * Unity Building (Chicago), Illinois, US; a skyscraper * Unity Buildings, Liverpool, UK; two buildings in England * Unity Chapel, Wyoming, Wisconsin, US; ...

game development engine.

Industry challenges

A lack of local investment and government support in addition to a shortage of game development skills have been identified as key challenges for the industry. Other important challenges include inflexible currency exchange regulations and onerous registration requirements imposed by the South African Films and Publications Board. Since 2016 the Departments of Sports, Art and Culture and Department of Trade and Industry have been discussing which department will take the authority of handling the rights of game developers thereby creating uncertainty within the industry of whom to talk to in government. Due to the difficulties of doing business as a game developer in the country over 80% of game development studios tend to relocate overseas once they become established.

Notable South African games

Notable video games developed in South Africa include: * World Turtles - Re: cOg Mission (TBA)

Gaming scene

Big tech companies like

MWEB Mweb is an Internet Service Provider based in South Africa since 1997. Mweb is a division of Internet Solutions Digital (Pty) Ltd, a subsidiary of Dimension Data, and its headquarters are located in the Mweb Building in Parow, Cape Town. Hi ...

and Telkom host local server game servers which improve gaming by a lot in South Africa. This helps the improvement of local competitive gaming and brings the local gaming community together easier.

Streaming

A growing number of South Africans are becoming professional game streamers on platforms such as

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and

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Competitive gaming

The country's biggest LAN event is the Cape Town based NAG LAN. Although the gaming community in Cape Town is the second biggest, the uncontested giant in South African gaming is Johannesburg, with

Gauteng Gauteng ( ) is one of the nine provinces of South Africa. The name in Sotho-Tswana languages means 'place of gold'. Situated on the Highveld, Gauteng is the smallest province by land area in South Africa. Although Gauteng accounts for only ...

in its entirety housing more video game players than the rest of the country. Plans are also laid out by SuperSport to start an eSport channel with GINX eSports TV as the demand for streaming eSports keeps on growing.

Compared to the rest of Africa

South Africa's video gaming compared to the rest of Africa is unchallenged due to the large number of wealthy South Africans living in cities like

Durban Durban ( ) ( zu, eThekwini, from meaning 'the port' also called zu, eZibubulungwini for the mountain range that terminates in the area), nicknamed ''Durbs'',Ishani ChettyCity nicknames in SA and across the worldArticle on ''news24.com'' from ...

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legislative capital Cape To ...

and

. With internet infrastructure being more than sufficient to support esports, and with Fibre being almost fully integrated in cities and wealthy suburban areas, the growth in online gaming can only be motivated. Video game developing in the country is not doing well, but events and eSports organizations like

Mind Sports South Africa Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) is recognised by Act of Parliament as the national controlling body for mind sports in South Africa. Mind Sports South Africa (MSSA) is also an affiliate of the International eSports Federation, Fédération M ...

, the Digital Gaming League, Orena and LANX have jumped up in 2015 with the big demand for eSports tournaments and other video game events in large cities. However, it is only

that continually holds events in all the provinces and runs school events. With gaming in schools also in the rise,

reports that there are now over 30 schools that participate in the official league, with school teams competing on an equal footing with many of the best private clubs in the country. Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda are the other top game developers in Africa. The video game industry is bringing millions of dollars in for their countries per year. This is in all categories of video games: mobile, PC, Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation.

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

also being dominant in sport in the continent and all over the world, and the country too has made its mark on the

eSport Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...

scene as the national

n team has participated in every International e-Sports Federation world Championship since 2009 over a varied number of games and platforms. But

has admitted that the gaming scene needs to mature. Further proof that South Africa is highly respected is that Thomas Brown was selected to referee at the 2016 World Cyber Arena (WCA) in Beijing, and that on 31 July 2016 Jason Batzofin was elected onto International e-Sports Federation Athletes' Commission. South Africa is ranked 23rd in the world for the video game '' Counter-Strike: Global Offensive''.

Video game retailers and distributors in South Africa

In South Africa, the majority of video game retailers purchase directly from publisher-authorised distributors for the country. However, some stores source titles from outside of the country due to cheaper prices, titles that aren't officially licensed for South Africa, or hard-to-find releases. Both Core Group (Authorized Nintendo Distributor) and Gamefinity (Authorized Sony Distributor) distribute their licensed products to stores, along with selling directly to the public. This may lead to power imbalances within the market as both companies have the ability to undercut their retail customers or hold stock for themselves. Video game retailing in South Africa has seen a dip over the years due to the improvement of internet services and the increase in the popularity of online gaming. South Africa also has a healthy second-hand market.

List of Popular Video Game Retailers (physical and ecommerce)

* Affordable Gaming * AWX * BT Games * Game 4U * Incredible Connection * Koodoo (Gamefinity) * Loot * Musica (Defunct) * Pwned Games * Raru (Defunct) * Takealot * X DVDs & Games

List of Video Game Distributors

* Apex Interactive * Core Group (distribution and retail) * Gamefinity * Megarom Interactive * Prima Interactive

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Video games in In South Africa South African culture