About a decade ago there used to be frequent news about Middle-East expansion from certain publishers such as Game Power 7 in order to reach the mostly untapped Arabic-speaking gaming market. Things died down a bit over the years, but it didn’t stop developers – mostly in the mobile sector – from continuing to expand and explore different interactive entertainment opportunities in the Middle-East, and Pocket Gamer wants to be a part of it.
Steel Media and Maysalward have partnered together to launch Pocket Gamer Middle East under the web portal of PocketGamer.me.
Chris James, founder and CEO of Steel Media explained why now was the time to launch Pocket Gamer in the Middle-East, mentioning in the press release…
“We’ve been visiting the Middle East and Jordan in particular a fair amount in the last few years, holding our first MENA Big Indie Pitch last October, and am super excited about the potential for the games industry there. Not only did the region represented the world’s fastest revenue growth in the last twelve months (according to NewZoo reports), but there’s a real groundswell of talented studios coming through, thanks in no small part to the activities of people like Nour Khrais and Maysalward with their work on events, the Jordan Gaming Lab and other education initiatives. We really couldn’t have hoped for a better partner and are committed to helping drive games development in the region forward in the next few years.”
PocketGamer.me will be a sister site to the already existing PocketGamer.biz.
The Mid-East variant will be headed up by Boushra Abdalhadi, and located out of Amman, Jordan. Much like the typical PocketGamer.biz, the new PocketGamer.me will feature news, reviews, interviews, and sponsored content delivered to Middle-Eastern and North African gamers.
Steel Media teamed up with Maysalward in an effort to better connect with and attain boots-on-the-ground feedback for engagement and potential growth in the sector. Nour Khrais, the founder and CEO of Maysalward, commented in the press release about the collaboration with Steel Media, explaining…
“Knowledge of, and exposure to, what’s happening in the mobile video gaming space are key to developing a unique product in our competitive world. Getting this in your own language is important for accelerating product growth. To get this right we needed a partner, who can bring the best to the region. This is why we are collaborating with PocketGamer.biz.”
The Middle-East is fairly large part of the EMEA that remains mostly untapped by most traditional video game distribution and development platforms due to some of the strict regulations and rules within their cultural society. This has led some developers to approach releasing their games in the Middle-East with great reservation.
It will be interesting to see if more companies begin to expand in the rapidly developing Mid-East interactive entertainment sectors in order to tap a largely untapped demographic of potential gaming consumers.
