Hicham Fadel, Jad El Mir, Johnny Yaacoub
DOHA: Video gaming is an exciting opportunity for telecom operators who can tap into this rapidly growing market and diversify their business using their existing capabilities, according to a new study titled Skin in the Game published by Strategy& Middle East, part of the PwC network.
According to industry data, the gaming industry is now worth a whopping $129billion-a-year. That is bigger in terms of revenue than annual worldwide box office, annual music streaming and album sales, and major sports leagues all put together. There are close to 2.5 billion gamers worldwide.
“The GCC gaming market has followed the rapid expansion and is expected to hit US$ 821 million by 2021 from $693m in 2017”, said Hicham Fadel, Partner with Strategy& Middle East. “Global games devised by international developers have so far dominated this regional market. This makes it a particularly attractive proposition for operators in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) region, where more than half the population is under 25 years of age and there is a strong opportunity to create localized gaming content”, added Fadel.
According to the Strategy& report, GCC telecom operators who successfully enter the gaming industry would improve their brand positioning and increase the loyalty of their customers. Gaming would also increase data usage and bring the welcome extra revenue for telecom operators. Significantly, this would allow telecom operators to generate more data about their customers, which in turn will help improve customer experience and increase monetization.
Telecom operators can reach the next stage by delving deeper into the gaming world cautiously First they should explore distribution of games, and once their gaming ecosphere is operational, GCC operators can begin by localizing simple games at first, or by making games relevant to the local audience. If this resonates with the players, they can then take the next step, develop their own games, and take the fight to global game publishers. Caution is key here – it’s a step-by-step process to gaming greatness and the next level.
In line with the overall global trend, the GCC gaming market has grown. As elsewhere in the world, the mobile gaming segment in the GCC dominates the region’s gaming market when it comes to revenue and penetration.
Market research indicates that global games devised by international developers have captured the lion’s share of opportunity in the GCC. The top mobile games played in the GCC today are PUBG Mobile, Intikam Al Salatin, Fortnite, and Rise of Kingdoms. However, the demand for localized content remains strong and to an extent unfulfilled.
This creates a potential for global players to modify their content to satisfy GCC users, or for GCC users to adapt global content themselves. Indeed, regional players such as gaming studio Falafel Games and Arabic mobile games publisher Tamatem Games have started to emerge through building on their culturally relevant content.
Jad El Mir, Principal with Strategy& Middle East said: “It’s no secret that video games are a global cultural tour-de-force. To fully understand the magnitude of its significance, take the video game Grand Theft Auto V – it achieved seven Guinness World Records after its release in 2013, including a world record for $1bn of sales within three days of its launch”.
Another way for telecom operators to associate with gaming is through investment in eSports, which are spectator events in their own right. Johnny Yaacoub, Manager with Strategy& Middle East said: The opportunity eSports represent is phenomenal, and that is compared to some of the biggest sporting events in the world. Take the example of Kyle Giersdorf, known online as “Bugha”. The gamer won the Fortnite World Cup and took home $3m – that’s more than the money awarded to the male or female winners of the Wimbledon tennis championship. That’s the scale of this industry”.
According to the Strategy& report, the video gaming industry, just like an actual game, involves multiple, different players. GCC operators need to understand these players so that they can build their own ways to accomplish their quest, and their own ways to unlock achievements in this growing market.
Providing enhanced connectivity through infrastructure is the simplest way to play for operators. It is also the safest and least ambitious. Operators can supply data packages offering better quality of service for gamers, potentially bundled with gaming hardware, content, and online platform subscriptions.
