LETTER FROM WEST AFRICA
In the imaginary republic of Mboa, you are a public official determined to rise through the ranks. Throughout his quest to the top, will he opt for scrupulous management of public money or give in to the lure of corruption? These are the types of challenges that Mboa’s managera mobile video game developed by the Cameroonian studio Kiro’o Games and whose preliminary version is now available in the Play Store, Google’s application store.
“To create this social parody, we started from what Africans talk about every day on social media: why are we poor when our political leaders seem to be living their best lives? »sums up Kiro’o Games founder Olivier Madiba caustically. The game should be completed in 2026, predicts the forty-year-old, who promises many laughs to his future fans. “every five minutes”.
A new bet from Kiro’o Games, a pioneer in the video game industry in Africa, which has already achieved great success. Critically acclaimed since its 2016 release on PC, its flagship game, “African Fantasy.” AurionIt was launched last April on Xbox, the famous Microsoft console. “A first for a black African studio”Olivier Madiba is happy. And proof of the growing interest of global players in the sector in the African video game scene.
Following in the footsteps of Nollywood or Afrobeats
“The driving force is the desire for new stories, new storiesdescribes Nick Hall, co-founder of Africa Games Week, the great event for the continental industry that has been held every year since 2016 in South Africa. Africa is the last region little explored by these large companies and the quality of local talent is beginning to be recognized. » Thus, in July, Microsoft organized the second African edition of its Xbox Game Camp, in Johannesburg (South Africa), Nairobi (Kenya) and Casablanca (Morocco), in order to bring together experts, developers and game enthusiasts from across the continent. .
In recent months, several offers They left their mark. Among them, the acquisition, at the end of 2023, of the South African studio 24 Bit Games by the American publisher Annapurna Interactive. Or the investment made in early 2024 by Sony in the South African game publisher Carry1st. The Playstation manufacturer has turned to its new fund, the Sony Innovation Fund, intended to support the African video game industry and endowed with 10 million dollars. Partnerships are also being established, such as the one sealed in February between Disney and the Nigerian studio Maliyo Games to create a mobile game derived from the Afrofuturist animation series. Iwaju.
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