Gaming is not fun...

It’s a serious business. The global market for digital games is worth over US$ 30 billion, far higher than the nominal GDP of Oman. Akshay Bhatnagar finds out more in a special report on the eGames Conference 2006 held at Muscat in December

As ICT spend is going up in the Middle East, gaming is spreading at a rapid pace in the region. According to an industry estimate, the Middle East gaming market is expected to be worth US$ 377 million in the next five years. Currently, it is pegged at US$ 67 million. What’s fuelling the growth?
Gaming today isn’t just about entertainment, says Mohammed Al Maskari, Director General, Knowledge Oasis Muscat (KOM). “It’s about education and training. It’s about using games to help people learn about managing money, fighting disease, preparing emergency services to deal with natural disasters, training air force pilots, guiding geologists on digging oil wells, through to helping my children learn English and keeping them occupied at the weekend!”

Taking the lead in promoting gaming in the region, Oman hosted ‘eGames – The State of Play’, a premier two-day conference for the gaming community. The event, organised by KOM, drew participants from leading operators, developers and academics from Singapore, Sweden, the UK, the UAE and Canada besides Oman and the Gulf region.

Gaming on the move
The gaming market is going through a major transformation. So far, PCs and consoles dominated. But mobile phones are fast becoming the preferred choice, especially among the youth and those who have adopted gaming recently. Currently, 40 per cent of the two billion mobile devices are gaming enabled. In 2008, 97 per cent of all mobile handsets will be gaming enabled. Once this happens, mobile gaming, currently less than 10 per cent of the gaming market, will explode and overtake other gaming devices by a wide margin.

“Compare this to videogames where over the past 25 years, 500 million consoles have been sold, as against 600 million mobiles sold just in the last 12 months. The figures are amazing and so are the opportunities,” informed Mohammed. Mobile gaming has a unique edge over other gaming devices; prospective gamers already own the platform on which they can play the game unlike other console-based gaming.

“The advancement in mobile handset technology, such as large colour screens and capacity, compact physical size, in addition to developments in 3G, EDGE and Java will enable the market to realise the potential of mobile handsets as fully-fledged gaming devices,” added Mohammed.

Conducive market conditions for growth are another notable trend in the region. “The telecom market in the Middle East is moving into a more de-regulated environment. It is leading to more competition and forcing the operators to stand out distinctly in the market. In such an environment, they need to differentiate and position themselves uniquely with value added services such as games,” said Andreas Johnsson, Director-Business Development, Connected Media Centre, Middle East Ericsson.

Besides service operators, the business growth of technology providers also relies on the expansion of value added services like mobile gaming. According to an Ericsson study, 32 per cent of mobile users in the UAE and Saudi Arabia play games at least once a week. These numbers outperform other mobile services like MMS, portal browsing and listening to music or even mobile TV.

Talking about new technologies in mobile gaming, Charlotte Skanstad, Project Manager, LM Ericsson said, “The new IMS-based multimedia services will change the users’ communication experience where they will be able to combine various content and communication, share these with others and invite multiple contacts. This is a very exciting development. Online gaming can run between mobile phones and PCs and fixed line phones and PDAs.”

Time to Shape Up
Despite high interest levels and immense growth potential, the region needs to get its act together fast. An interactive platform such as the eGames conference is a step in the right direction but that’s not sufficient. According to one of the speakers at the event, the region lacks an entrepreneurial environment to localise and push market growth. There are very few gaming development companies to support the market requirement for creation of games. Instead of relying on content from other markets, Arab countries need to create local content to connect with a wider base of gamers. “It’s high time telecom operators, technology providers and others with vested interest come forward and create an eco system of value services,” said Johnsson.

Talking about effective promotion of eGames, Bilal Saleh, Director, EMEA/LAC Application Services, Motorola, said: “A key issue for games vendors is getting people to discover, try then buy. The cost of acquisition and the low conversion to sale has meant many spend as much as US$ 10-20 to get a user to buy something. If they buy a game and leave, the user is not profitable. No wonder, nearly all meaningful sales of games are on deck (i.e. using the operator’s marketing budget – this is even true for the biggest gaming vendors). Effective retailing remains the number one factor in mobile gaming success and developers need to be aware of this from the outset. Personalisation, flexible pricing and smart retailing are key parts of the mobile gaming ecosystem.”

The Gen Next 3D Technology
The 27-year-old Tony Welch, former automation engineer of Cisco Systems, is all set for changing the future of eGames. The CEO and founder of Fountain Consulting has developed a 3D technology called the Vortex Home Entertainment System. It is expected to launch the true era of high-def 3D for games apart from movies and TV, etc. It starts with a library of 500 current PC based games titles converted to flawless 3D, and even the ability to convert 2D live television into 3D live television, as well as pre-recorded movies on DVD, Blu-ray and HD DVD. Besides making their own modifications to existing high-end NVIDIA cards and putting it into their own PC systems, which will sell pre-loaded with 150 top PC games, Windows XP and Vista, and a special interface that can be controlled from a games console controller (in addition to being easily controlled by a standard keyboard and mouse), Fountain Consulting also aim to sell a pack for US$ 150 that allows anyone with the same hardware to modify their own system to make it 3D compatible. One really need to see a demo of the system playing the latest games, in 3D, with a pair of standard 3D glasses (similar to those handed out at IMAX or Real D cinemas), to truly appreciate how much better the game looks in 3D. The depth, the explosions, the action and the detail are enhanced to a new 3D level.

Shaking Funjan from Oman Mobile
Oman Mobile has launched an Omani eGame ‘Shaking Funjan (Coffee Cup)’ to follow-in the footsteps of the success of first game ‘Forts Adventure’. The new mobile game is designed by four female engineeri ing students from the Sultan Qaboos University, the winners of ‘Student Gamer Challenge 2006’. The student’s team went to Amsterdam to interact with Dutch experts for the final production of the game. The trip was sponsored by Oman Mobile. The creation of the game was monitored closely by the team to ensi sure that the players of the game learn about Omani traditions and culture.

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