"The African audience has become global"
gamesindustry.bizToday in Cape Town, as part of Africa Games Week, a panel discussed and debunked common myths around the games industry on the continent, from the measure of success to what authentic African stories can look like.
The panel was hosted by Deborah Mensah-Bonsu, who leads Supercell's philanthropic arm, but is also the founder of Games for Good and part of the Playing for the Planet Alliance team.
It featured Masseka Games' founder Teddy Kossoko (whom we interviewed earlier this year about championing the games industry in Senegal), Maliyo Games' founder Hugo Obi (who was also part of a Devcom panel who called the wider industry to break down its biases about African games markets in August), and Leti Arts' CEO Eyram Tawia (among the co-founders of the Pan Africa Gaming Group)
The first talking point revolved around perceptions of success, and what success looks like and means for game developers on the African continent.
Tawia noted that "success is relative" in Africa, highlighting the importance of being impactful before thinking about financial success.
"Focus on impact first and figure out how to be sustainable to keep your impact going before looking at the financial revenues," he said.
Obi described his changing definition of success as the African continent grows its games industry more and more each year.
"If you asked me this question five years ago, I would have probably said [success is] a five to ten [people] studio, probably doing $25,000 a year in revenue, shipping maybe a game a year. I think the definitions of success are changing and right now it's anywhere between 30 to 50 people, definitely should have a game a year but of much better quality, and at least $100,000 in revenue a year.
"If you ask
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