TechPression

Category: Games

  • Africa’s largest gaming company (MVM) raises $3.2M at a $30M valuation

    Africa’s largest gaming company (MVM) raises $3.2M at a $30M valuation

    Metaverse Magna (MVM), an African cryptocurrency gaming platform, has raised $3.2 million through a seed token offering, which valued the company at $30 million when all of its shares were sold.

    Investors including South Korean video game developer Wemade, Japan-based blockchain-focused venture capital firm Gumi Cryptos Capital (GCC), HashKey, Tess Ventures, LD Capital, Taureon, AFF, Polygon Studios, Casper Johansen (Spartan), and IndiGG all welcomed participation in MVM, which was incubated in partnership with a multi-strategy blockchain investment fund, Old Fashion Research (OFR). In a statement, MVM said the funding will expand its efforts to build “Africa’s largest gaming DAO and provide gamers with access to world-class opportunities.”
    More than 3 billion people play video games and spend more than $200 billion annually on consoles and in-app purchases like NFTs. Platforms such as MVM see games as a means of bringing these millions of consumers online.

    Merging Crypto and Web 3

    The game DAO releases mobile games in emerging countries and produces developer tools for game developers to make use of new revenue streams in web gaming. When asked why MVM needed to raise money after the African web3 start-up closed a $6.45 million round this year, Nestcoin CEO Yele Bademosi responded in an email interview that it functions as an autonomous entity as part of the larger Nestcoin ecosystem.

    Read also: The Explosive Growth of Blockchain Funding and Cryptocurrency in Africa

    “Africa has the highest youth population globally, but over 60% of the continent’s youth are unemployed,” said Bademosi. “Gaming presents a unique opportunity to help young Africans earn and lift themselves and their families out of poverty. MVM’s seed sale token ensures opportunities for millions of gamers in these emerging markets. ”

    Axie Infinity and Pegaxy are two examples of free-to-play Web 2.0 games and crypto games. What began as a gaming guild offering play-to-earn scholarships to over 1,000 gamers has grown to a 100,000-member-strong community across an ecosystem that includes 2,000+ gamers, 10,000 Telegram, and 20,000 Discord members.

    MVM said that it is building the software for the Hyper social game, which will come out soon. In the same interview, Bademosi mentioned that the gaming DAO platform was developing ten Web 2.0 games, most of which were hypercasual games that spanned several genres. These games included Candy Blast, the platform’s take on Candy Crush, Wordler, Kong Clumb, and Electron Dash.

    When queried, Bademosi tentatively replies, “12 months,” even though MVM doesn’t have a specific time for releasing its token to the general public. Additionally, after the Token Distribution Event, MVM tokens would be locked for 12 months before being unlocked for 30 months in quarterly increments. The platform’s CEO also said that, in line with its “create in public” philosophy, more information about the governance token for MVM’s member community would be made available in due time.

    “Gaming guilds will be one of the mainstream DAOs and play a pivotal role in game tokenomics.” “Partnership with MVM is an opportunity to expand the ecosystem of WEMIX [a global blockchain gaming platform developed by Wemade] in Africa, a continent with a rapidly growing market and a young population,” said Henry Chang, CEO of Wemade, in a statement.

    Nestcoin raises $6.45 million in pre-seed funding to accelerate web3 adoption in Africa.
    The initial wave of opportunity created by technical improvements was lost on Africans and people in emerging markets. People in these areas have always had to play catch-up regarding technology, be it computers, the internet, finance, artificial intelligence, or any other technology (apart from mobile tech).

    However, emerging technologies like web3 and crypto give Africans optimism that they may be able to shape how it looks in the years to come significantly. Nestcoin, a business established in November of last year that develops, manages, and finances web3 apps, aspires to play a key role in this shift and has secured $6.45 million in a pre-seed round to that end.

    Cryptocurrencies Growth in Africa

    According to a study by New York-based research firm Chainalysis, the market value of cryptocurrencies in Africa increased by 1,200%, reaching $105.6 billion between July 2020 and June 2021. The causes of this rising adoption include regional inflation, depreciating currencies, high unemployment rates, and unpredictable economic conditions. Despite numerous governments’ attempts to curb it, we should anticipate stronger crypto growth since these problems will not soon go away in Africa.

    Read also: Nigeria, Binance, and Talent City Partner for Crypto City

    Peer-to-peer transactions and retail trading are two main reasons why African people are starting to use cryptocurrencies. Yele Bademosi and Taiwo Orilogbon, the co-founders of Nestcoin, were in charge of Bundle Africa, one of the continent’s well-known crypto trading platforms, before founding Nestcoin.
    When Bademosi decided to launch Bundle as CEO in 2019, he was the director of Binance Labs in Africa, overseeing blockchain startup incubation and development. The company’s chief technology officer was Orilogbon.

    Bademosi had high hopes for Bundle, which was created on the biggest platform for trading cryptocurrencies. “The goal was to be present in 30-plus African countries and have millions of users,” he said in an interview. Three years after he left, Bundle had fewer than 100,000 active customers and was only available in Ghana and Nigeria in the upcoming couple of years.
    “The first iteration of crypto products were trading products. The second iteration has been more like decentralised finance and non-custodial trading of financing activities,” said Bademosi.
    “The current situation of crypto, and now more like applications that everyday people use and love, whether it is like consumer applications, finance apps, entertainment, gaming, but these applications now have potential to reach millions of users across frontier markets. And that’s what we are trying to do with Nestcoin.”
    Examining the Digital Currency Group can help you comprehend how Nestcoin functions (DCG). The venture capital and holding company are based in Connecticut. It has more than 60 subsidiaries and investments in cryptocurrency and blockchain in 30 different countries, including LUNO, CoinDesk, and Bitso.

    But Nestcoin focuses on developing, investing in, and running web3 and non-custodial solutions that are more accessible to regular people in frontier areas. On the other hand, DCG focuses on western markets and developing products with custodial features for HNIs and institutional clients.

  • Qene Games utilize Ethio Telecom to market its mobile games in Ethiopia

    Qene Games utilize Ethio Telecom to market its mobile games in Ethiopia

    On April 11, Qene Games, Ethiopia’s first video game development studio signed a partnership agreement with Ethio Telecom, the Ethiopian Telecommunications Corporation to make its mobile games available to the local market.

    Inquest to solve the problem facing the African gaming studio in marketing their products, the partnership will provide a solution to the challenging payment issue that the industry is dealing with.

    Henceforth, Qene Games will now rely on the Ethiopian operator’s Fintech solutions to make its products more accessible to customers through subscriptions and in-app purchases.

    Chairman and CEO of Qene Games, Dawit Abraham affirm “  Africa has great potential to become a major game exporter and compete in the global creative and entertainment industry. However, the first step we need to take to make this a reality is to give African creators easy access to sell their content in the African market  ”.

     

    What does Qene Games do?

    Being the first game development studio in Ethiopia, Qene game is the creator of kukuklu, Gabeta, and Feta mobile games.

    On basis of consistency and desire to give its user the best experiences, Qene won  Apps Africa Awards for being the best entertainment app and the best app of the year, for its first two games.

     

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    Through their African artistic styles, music, and characters, these African-inspired mobile games are enjoyable, engaging, and provide players with a uniquely genuine experience.

     

    About Qene Games and Ethio Telecom Partnership

    The partnership between Qene Games and Ethio Telecom will be a significant milestone in the development of the Ethiopian gaming industry. The partnership’s ultimate goal is to address the major difficulty facing the gaming industry – that of payment choices. Qene will make its games available through a variety of formats, including subscriptions and in-app purchases, by using the fintech solutions provided by Ethio telecom.

    Dawit Abraham, CEO of Qene Games “We believe that Africa has a great potential to become a major games exporter and compete in the global creative and entertainment industry. However, the first step we need to take to make this a reality is to give African creators easy access to sell their content in the African market. We are happy to have taken a step forward in this direction with our recent partnership with Ethio Telecom.”

     

    Read Also : EIB to Finance Chad’s ICT System and Digitization of Public Services

     

    Kukulu, Qene’s first mobile game will be used for the partnership. In Kukulu, a well-known Ethiopian smartphone game, players experience the epic journey of a courageous chicken that is fleeing for her life from her captor farmer. 

    There are more than four Ethiopian languages being used in the localization process, and the game has culturally appropriate characters and situations that Ethiopian gamers find appealing. Following this launch, Qene will seek to make its full games catalog, as well as additional high-quality games obtained locally and from other parts of the world, available to the Ethiopian market.

     

    Will Qene Game Do it Alone?

    Nothing can be done in isolation, the long-term goal of this collaboration is to increase the number of African games released on the continent as well as the growth of the industry by giving talented games developers with easy access to the marketplace.

    “Through this and coming partnerships, we want to provide African countries with enjoyable and relatable content, while at the same time showing young people in Africa that the gaming industry is a promising and financially viable sector to get into.” says Samuel Sisay, CTO and lead developer at Qene Games.

    Qene Games hopes to use its Pan-African Gaming Group membership to achieve this ambition. The Pan African Gaming Group was formed in February 2022 to unite 10 leading African gaming studios. This group presently has fifty mobile games available.

    The Pan-African Gaming Group (PAGG) focuses on creating and releasing material for African gamers. Qene Games, PAGG, and Ethio telecom will enable African game creators to localize and distribute their games in Ethiopia.

  • Zain KSA Announces GeForce NOW Cloud Game, in Partnership with NVIDIA

    Zain KSA Announces GeForce NOW Cloud Game, in Partnership with NVIDIA

    Zain which is Saudi Arabia’s leading telecommunications provider has announced that its subscribers will soon be able to access the GeForce NOW cloud game library from Zain KSA and enjoy the most powerful cloud gaming features courtesy of its partnership with NVIDIA, the leading provider of cloud computing solutions, across many markets in the region.

    This announcement was made following the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona (MWC). The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia through this collaboration is set to become a regional epicentre for world-class e-gaming and cloud gaming experiences.

    Following this strategic partnership, Zain KSA subscribers will be able to enjoy a wide range of cloud-based games, over a mind-blowing 5G network and without the hassle of owning and maintaining their own gaming rigs, via GeForce NOW from Zain KSA.

    About GeForce Now

    GeForce NOW is a cloud-based game streaming service powered by NVIDIA, delivering real-time gameplay right out of the cloud to the player’s laptop, desktop, Mac, SHIELD TV, iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Players can connect to their NVIDIA store accounts and stream from their library of games, or play their favorite free-to-play games with amazing GeForce quality.

    With GeForce NOW cloud game, gamers can run games on remote servers and stream them directly to their devices. The actual game is stored, executed, and rendered on the remote operator’s servers without the need for high-capability end-user devices.
    Mr. Rayan bin Abdullah Al-Turki, Chief Communications Officer at Zain Saudi Arabia, said: “We are working in Zain Saudi Arabia to contribute to shaping the digital future, and in particular entertainment, for future generations, especially in the field of cloud games, which are witnessing widespread and widespread popularity.

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    In the Kingdom and the countries of the region. After the pioneering experience of GeForce NOW service in the Kingdom, Zain Saudi Arabia’s cloud gaming system and the technical progress it provides, as well as the experience we have accumulated in the local market, have become a requirement of regional telecom operators and their subscribers, including gaming enthusiasts and professionals.

    By strengthening our cooperation with NVIDIA, we will provide the countries of the region with an integrated digital experience that enriches the digital entertainment sector in general, and redefines the concept of electronic games by providing a unique gaming experience that does not require any equipment, storage or advanced processing requirements, but rather incorporates the latest technologies With the best content and the easiest access from anywhere and on any device.”

    What The Partnership Means For GeForce Now

    Commenting on the partnership, Richard Lamond, GeForce NOW & SHIELD Director of Sales, NVIDIA EMEA, said: “By facilitating direct communication with the GeForce gaming platform in the cloud, more than 1,000 games can be listened to across Steam, Epic and Ubisoft Game Stores; Now the GeForce NOW platform has expanded to more than 80 countries around the world.” He added, “We partnered with Zain Saudi Arabia to launch the GeForce NOW platform in Saudi Arabia last year, and we are pleased to work with them to expand the service to Kuwait, Jordan and Oman in the coming months.”

    By strengthening this strategic partnership, Zain KSA leverages its products and services to contribute to the goals of Vision 2030 and achieve the Kingdom’s digital transformation through a safe and secure system that protects the rights and data of all partners. This is in line with Zain KSA’s strategy to become a leading digital service provider with state-of-the-art solutions that keep pace with future requirements and anticipate future technical challenges.

    It is worthy of note that Zain Saudi Arabia has designed an advanced infrastructure that contributed to Riyadh being ranked first among the capitals of the world in the speed of the fifth-generation (5G) internet, which reached a rate of 317.3 megabits per second, ahead of Tokyo and Dublin. Since its launch of the largest 5G network, it currently covers 51 cities through more than 5,000 towers.

  • Gaming in Africa is expanding as players become professionals

    Gaming in Africa is expanding as players become professionals

    Africa has traditionally lagged far behind other continents in gaming due to its poverty and infrastructure issues, such as unreliable telecommunications and electricity supply.
    According to a study by Newzoo, the number of gamers in sub-Saharan Africa jumped from 77 million in 2015 to 186 million in 2021, an incredible increase.

    As the continent embraces digital currencies, 63 million of those 186 million people are paying to play games. The continent’s improved Internet access and low-cost smartphones have resulted in a 95% mobile market share. Many Africans used to rely on computers in internet cafes to get their fix of virtual reality.

    A billion gamers in Africa, along with China and India, will be the industry’s “final untapped consumer audience,” according to Hall. He believes that in the next five years, Africa will have one billion internet users.  Hall emphasised the importance of working with local content creators, such as streamers or YouTubers, in order to cash in on Africa’s gaming boom.

    South Africa has the highest percentage of game players at 40%, followed by Ghana and Nigeria. And there are many more to come.  In this case, it is called “New El Dorado.” During the projection period, the gaming industry is expected to grow at a CAGR of 12% (2021 – 2026). The Pandemic of Covid-19 had a favourable impact on the African Gaming Market. The pandemic resulted in enforced stay-at-home orders, which resulted in customers spending more time and money on various games and gaming consoles, resulting in the rise of the commercial gaming business.
    A native of the Central African Republic to tell the stories of African cultures and history, Teddy Kossoko founded Masseka Game Studio, which is based in Europe.

    Despite the lack of resources to train African children to become professional gamers, he remains upbeat.  “Africa is the new El Dorado,” he said. “This industry and not only this industry,” he added.

    “Hundreds of years ago, a gold rush occurred in the United States. We (Africans) must be the first to take advantage of this current gold rush, which I believe is taking place on our continent today. ” As a matter of fact,

    Others are creating games for a variety of reasons, not just for fun.
    Founded by Jay Shapiro of Usiku Games, a social-impact gaming company based in Kenya, Seedballs aims to repopulate the semi-arid north of the country with new trees.

    Kenya’s forest cover is expected to rise from 7% to 10% this year. That’s what Shapiro believes the game is accomplishing. When flying a plane, “instead of dropping bombs and trying to destroy things, you’re dropping seeds and trying to plant trees,” he explained.

    After completing the game, players are recognised for the number of virtual trees they planted and given the option to have those trees grown into actual ones.

    A donation of one Kenyan shilling (less than 0.008 of a dollar) is requested for each fictitious tree planted. As Shapiro put it, “It’s the only instance we’ve seen of gaming actually being used to plant real trees.”

  • Kenya Launches Cybercrime Protection Game for Children

    Kenya Launches Cybercrime Protection Game for Children

    The Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) Established in 1999 by the Kenya Information and Communications Act, 1998, is the Authority responsible for facilitating the development of the information and communications sectors including; broadcasting, cybersecurity, multimedia, telecommunications, electronic commerce, postal, and courier services.

    In an effort to pursue its purpose and promote safer cyberspace in Kenya, the Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) launched an online game called “Cyber Soldjas” on Tuesday, which aims to educate children about the perils and realities of using the internet.

    Read Also : Africa is set to take over the global videogame business

    The game, called “Cyber Soldjas,” was launched during the official opening of the national Safe Internet Day 2022 celebrations was developed by Usiku Games and is aimed at children aged four to fourteen. This age group learns best via action and repetition, which is best accomplished through games.

    Mercy Wanjau, the authority’s Director of Legal Services, remarked upon the program’s introduction that the game development was informed by increased cyber threats in the Kenyan online space and is aimed at encouraging people’s role in creating a safer online space.

    Read Also: Google Chrome Vulnerability

    “Impacts range from threats to protection of personal data and privacy to harassment and cyberbullying, harmful online content, grooming for sexual purposes, and sexual abuse and exploitation,” Mr. Chiloba expanded in a speech read on his behalf by Ms. Wanjau.

    According to data from the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), 20.6 million Kenyans aged three and above own a mobile phone, as shown in the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

    Read Also :Botswana: A new data protection law takes effect.

    The statistics show that the majority of these devices are in the hands of young people aged 25 to 34, who owns 6.1 million of them. They are followed by those aged 18-24, who have 4.6 million mobile phones, and children aged three to four have 44,777 mobile phones in their hands.

    The CA Director-General Ezra Chiloba however, noted that increased access to the Internet and digital technology also poses significant challenges to children and the youth, including their safety.

  • Africa is set to take over the global videogame business.

    Africa is set to take over the global videogame business.

    There was a time when African gamers would go to internet cafes to play their favorite online games. When these games were first released, consoles were the primary means of playing them. Young males were the primary patrons.

    Most characters, materials, and even languages in African-inspired video games may now be played anywhere thanks to the rise of smartphones.

    There is a new trend in the market that is helping to boost the video game industry in the region: multi-functional gaming consoles are becoming more and more popular.

    Gamers in Africa have seen a substantial increase in the last five years because of this. As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the gaming market is claimed to have grown at an astronomical rate.

    The gaming industry in Africa is dominated by South Africa.

    South African gaming platform Carry1st commissioned a study in 2021 that estimates the sub-Saharan African region’s total population of players at 186 million, up from 77 million in 2015.

    With 40 percent of the population participating in video games, South Africa is Africa’s largest market for video games, with a population of 24 million players. As a result of this, the video game market in the country is gradually overtaking that of movies and music.

    In a tie for the second position with 27% each, Ghana and Nigeria are both African nations. A combined 22% and 13% of the continent’s population participate in video games, putting Kenya and Ethiopia at the bottom two spots.

    Read Also : Africa is set to take over the global video game business

    In the next years, these numbers are expected to grow exponentially as more investment plans are made in Africa’s gaming business. CRE Venture capital led an investment of USD 2.5 million in Carry1st, a gaming development firm, to support and invest in-game publishing in Africa in May 2020.

    Adding your own personal touch to video games

    Using blockchain technology, game developers are now introducing new components, the latest of which allows players to own characters and assets within the games they play.

    There is a growing number of tech-savvy young people in Kenya who could soon be making money from this sector boom, thanks to a social impact gaming company called Usiku Games Africa.

    We are looking into ways to have money mechanisms embedded into the games where players may earn or spend in a more transparent manner, says founder and CEO of Usiku Games, Jay Shapiro.

    Gamers will still have the pleasure of gaming, but they won’t be able to cash out their winnings as they can in traditional gambling under this new model.

    “African gaming is booming. This is true not only for those who enjoy free-to-play games but also for those who are prepared to spend money on them.

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    It has instead been implemented in the form of long-term savings tools like pension schemes, health care, and education insurance, which helps to strengthen the low savings culture among young Africans and strengthen their financial resilience.

    According to Shapiro, “the fact is that you may lose all you have even if you have a job or income, a little bit of savings maybe,”

    Africa’s digital currency market and video games

    In addition, the gaming sector generates billions of dollars in revenue for countries around the world each year.

    As the continent adopts digital currencies, these figures are expected to expand at the quickest rate in the globe, with 63 million of 186 million gamers now paying for games.

    Another study by Newswagg’s found that 38 percent of the 41.9 million gamers in the world who own cryptocurrency are between the ages of 21 and 38 years old.

    Read Also: Nigerian Agri-fintech company Tingo seeks $500M Expansion funds, plans NYSE listing

    There are already 5.9 million gamers in Africa and the Middle East who hold cryptocurrency, and this number is expected to rise in Africa due to the continent has one of the most youthful populations by the year 2050. ( 50 percent growth).