The City of Cape Town is a proud host city and sponsor of Africa Games Week, the largest gathering of African Game Developers in the world. An industry curated event, Africa Games Week aims to shine a spotlight on the creatives and gaming business opportunities around Africa.
The three-day event, from Wednesday, 23 February 2022, will host over 300 professionals from around the world, including game developers.
In addition, more than 1000 game enthusiasts are expected to join the hybrid event, which will also include masterclasses by international speakers, workshops, roundtable discussions and games pitching competitions.
In previous years, Africa Games Week has seen big international brands come together. This includes PlayStation, Ubisoft, Nintendo, Sega, Focus, Devolver, Landfall and more.
‘Gaming is fast becoming one of the most important and innovative sectors in technology. It has become an area that cuts across other industries, creating solutions in entertainment and education. It also has the potential to create jobs and investment opportunities. Cape Town has become the country’s top game development destination, with roughly 60 percent of game development studios based here. Through events such as Africa Games Week, we hope that emerging game developers can connect with international publishers, distributors and software developers in order to secure investment for their ventures’ said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security Alderman JP Smith.
With excellent infrastructure in place, including connectivity, favourable working conditions and a stable local government, these goals are achievable.
‘Cape Town is the digitech hub of Africa and a leading location for software companies. Between 2003 and December 2018, the city’s ICT sector ranked third in terms of capital expenditure on the continent. Given the global demand for software design and development, Cape Town is in a unique position to become a global innovation hub. The city’s natural beauty allows for a better working environment, lifestyle is a strong pull factor, and the local tech community is vibrant and enthusiastic with a large network of start-up support,’ said Mayoral Committee Member for Economic Growth, Alderman James Vos.
Africa Games Week will feature three conferences under its banner including Make Games Africa, Games for Change Africa and Africa StreamCon, a gathering of online content streamers.
These conferences will have over 500 local and international creators, who will share ideas on building game studios for employment, sourcing funding and using games to effect change.
Source: City Of Cape Town