AstroLabs and IMPACt46, in collaboration with the Saudi Ministry of Communications and Information Technology’s Center of Digital Entrepreneurship (CODE), proudly presented the ‘Future of Saudi: Gaming Levels Up’ event at the CODE Headquarters in Riyadh, marking a significant step forward for Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning gaming industry. The event attracted a diverse audience, uniting gamers, gaming founders, developers, and industry stakeholders.
Distinguished industry experts converged for a panel discussion that offered insights into the future of gaming within the Kingdom. The panel included Roland Daher, Chief Executive Officer of AstroLabs, Nasser Alkathiri, Director of Entrepreneurship Empowerment at CODE, Mohammed Alnasyan, Senior Investment Associate at IMPACT46, and Ali Alharbi, Founder and Chief Executive Officer at UMX Studio, moderated by Nasser Bin Rubayan, Program Manager at Nine66.
The panel discussion covered key topics, including the strategic importance of the gaming industry in Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 goals and the need for upskilling and investment in local talent. The recently released 2023 Saudi Gaming Market Outlook Report revealed a significant 80% of developers have less than five years of experience, with an impressive 52% being entirely self-taught. These figures underscore the sector’s early-stage evolution. The discussion also revolved around the need to bolster seasoned studios in their later phases through the implementation of specialised acceleration programmes tailored to sharpen their go-to-market strategies.
In a pivotal moment during the event, AstroLabs and IMPACT46 jointly announced the launch of the Arabic version of the ‘2023 Saudi Gaming Market Outlook Report,’ the first Arabic report on the sector. This report provides crucial insights into the evolving gaming landscape within Saudi Arabia, further cementing the nation’s position as a global gaming hub.
The event showcases AstroLabs’ commitment to building the region’s gaming industry through a dual approach. Fostering innovation and growth for local developers, and bringing in regional and global businesses, providing support with setting up, localisation and cultural adaptation to bolster growth further.
During the event, up-and-coming local gaming studios from the Gamechangers programme launched in 2021, showcased their games to attendees. In 2021, the Gamechangers programme, in partnership with AstroLabs and CODE, graduated 10 gaming studios, 2 of which had won the ‘Most Promising Games Award’ for LEAP23; this event echoes the ongoing enablement of local gaming studios.
The event also highlighted the remarkable gender diversity in the Saudi gaming ecosystem, as exemplified by the Gamechangers programme, where 60% of the graduating gaming studios were founded by women.
The ‘Future of Saudi: Gaming Levels Up’ event showcased the collaboration on all fronts of the ecosystem, bridging the impact of government initiatives, investor support, and ecosystem builders.
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