LETTER FROM WEST AFRICA
In the imaginary republic of Mboa, you are a civil servant determined to climb the ranks. Throughout your quest to the top, will you opt for scrupulous management of public money or will you give in to the lure of corruption? These are the kinds of challenges that The Manager Mboaa mobile video game developed by the Cameroonian studio Kiro’o Games and a preliminary version of which is already available on Play Store, Google’s application store.
“To create this social parody, we started from what Africans talk about every day on social networks: why are we poor when our political leaders seem to be living their best lives? »sums up, caustically, the founder of Kiro’o Games, Olivier Madiba. The game should be finalized in 2026, predicts the forty-year-old, who promises his future fans lots of laughs “every five minutes”.
A new bet for Kiro’o Games, pioneer of the video game industry in Africa, which has already achieved great success. Critically acclaimed since its launch in 2016 on PC, its signature game, “African fantasy” Aurionwas released last April on Xbox, the famous Microsoft console. “A first for a black African studio”rejoices Olivier Madiba. And proof of a growing interest from global players in the sector for 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 high mass of the continental industry which has been held every year since 2016 in South Africa. Africa is the last region to have been little explored by these large companies and the quality of local talent is beginning to be recognized. » Thus, Microsoft organized the second African edition of its Xbox Game Camp in July, in Johannesburg (South Africa), Nairobi (Kenya) and Casablanca (Morocco), in order to bring together experts, developers and game enthusiasts from across the continent. .
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In recent months, several deals 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 games publisher Carry1st. The manufacturer of the Playstation has drawn on 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 Afro-futurist animated series. Front.
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