Video games in South Africa

The video games sector in South Africa is one of the largest video games markets and Esports scenes in Africa. The video games sector has overtaken the South African market in movies and music in market value and is still rapidly increasing. In 2016 the South African games industry advocacy group, Interactive Entertainment South Africa, stated that the video game market in the country was worth R2.2 billion (US$ 139 million) whilst the domestic games industry was worth R58 million (US$ 5.46 million) in 2014. A 2021 study by Newzoo and Carry1st estimates that 40% (24 million people) of sub-Saharan Africa's video game playing population were located in South Africa.
GAME 4U is the largest physical and online retailer of video games and gaming-related items in South Africa. With a total of 16 stores located in major malls across the country, it holds the distinction of having the most physical stores in its category, offering a wide range of gaming consoles, accessories, PC gaming equipment and merchandise. This strategic placement of outlets across the country provides easy accessibility of the latest gaming products to South Africans.
In South Africa, most video game retailers purchase their stock directly from publisher-authorized distributors within the country. Some distributors supply licensed products to retailers and also sell directly to consumers, potentially creating power imbalances in the market. These distributors can undercut their retail customers or reserve stock for themselves. The retail gaming sector in South Africa has declined in recent years, driven by the improvement of internet services and the growing popularity of digital downloads of games, as a result, many former retailers, like BT Games, have reduced their number of physical stores, while others, such as Musica, have gone out of business entirely.
The country has produced to a small number of domestic game development studios such as Free Lives, Celestial Games, 24 Bit Games and Luma Arcade; as of 2022 the only still active developers of the four were Free Lives and 24 Bit Games. A new development studio; BladezGaming, established 2022, has their first game coming out in December 2022. As of 2022 there were 60 active game development studios in South Africa with the majority them being micro-enterprises that employ less than five people; only six of these studios employ more than ten people. Most studios are based in or around the cities of Cape Town and Johannesburg.
Over 90% of South African game development studios report using the Unity game development engine.
A lack of local investment and government support in addition to a shortage of game development skills have been identified as key challenges for the industry. Other important challenges include inflexible currency exchange regulations and onerous registration requirements imposed by the South African Films and Publications Board. Since 2016 the Departments of Sports, Art and Culture and Department of Trade and Industry have been discussing which department will take the authority of handling the rights of game developers thereby creating uncertainty within the industry of whom to talk to in government. Due to the difficulties of doing business as a game developer in the country over 80% of game development studios tend to relocate overseas once they become established.
Notable video games developed in South Africa include:
Big tech companies like MWEB and Telkom host local server game servers which exponentially helps improve gaming in South Africa. This assists the improvement of local competitive gaming and brings the local gaming community together easier.
A growing number of South Africans are becoming professional game streamers on platforms such as Twitch and YouTube.
The country's biggest LAN event is the Cape Town based NAG LAN. Plans are being laid out by SuperSport to start an eSport channel with GINX eSports TV as the demand for streaming eSports keeps on growing.
South Africa's video gaming compared to the rest of Africa is unchallenged due to the large number of wealthy South Africans living in cities like Durban, Cape Town, Pretoria, Bloemfontein and Johannesburg. With internet infrastructure being more than sufficient to support esports, and with Fibre being almost fully integrated in cities and wealthy suburban areas, the growth in online gaming can only be motivated. Video game developing in the country is not doing well, but events and eSports organizations like Mind Sports South Africa, the Digital Gaming League, Orena and LANX have jumped up in 2015 with the big demand for eSports tournaments and other video game events in large cities. However, it is only Mind Sports South Africa that continually holds events in all the provinces and runs school events. With gaming in schools also in the rise, Mind Sports South Africa reported in 2019 that there were over 60 schools that participated in the official league.
Nigeria, Kenya and Uganda are the other top game developers in Africa. Their local video game industry is bringing millions of dollars in for their countries per year. This is in all categories of video games: mobile, PC, Xbox, Nintendo, and PlayStation.
South Africa has been dominant in eSports on the continent, and great internationally. The country has made its mark on the eSport scene as the national South African team has participated in every International eSports Federation world Championship since 2009 over a varied number of games and platforms. But Mind Sports South Africa has admitted that the gaming scene in the country needs to mature. Further proof that South Africa is highly respected is that Thomas Brown was selected to referee at the 2016 World Cyber Arena (WCA) in Beijing, and that on August 2016, Jason Batzofin was elected into the International eSports Federation Athletes' Commission.