Games For Change officially launch at Africa Games Week

Non-profit organization (NPO) Games For Change (G4C) officially launched its African chapter today 24th February 2022 at the ongoing Africa Games Week being held in Cape Town, South Africa.

Games for Change is a nonprofit that empowers game creators and social innovators to drive real-world impact through games and immersive media. The organisation does this by having industry experts inspire creators through events such as their annual Games for Change Festival and Student Challenge.

The nonprofit currently has chapters in Latin America, Asia Pacific and Europe with their Head Office located in New York, USA. Discussions to launch an African chapter of Games For Change had been on the organisation’s agenda for a while and plans to officially kick off the project was announced in 2021.

CEO Sea Monster Entertainment, Glenn Gillis, who was representing the nonprofit at Africa Games Week gave more information on what they are about “Games For Change has been around since 2004, long time to be flying the flag but also good to know that it’s not that long that we’ve been thinking about this [gaming] in a very serious and scientific way.”

“It’s wonderful to see academic work that forms the backbone of the work that we do, this is not about trading opinions this is about using science and data to inform this and Games For Change brings together our community globally.” He further stated

Gillis would officially reveal the launch of the nonprofit and ask for support from anyone interested in the cause of developing games that have a purpose other than pure entertainment.

“We announced at Games For Change last year that we would be forming this [Africa] chapter and today is the first day of the rest of our lives.” Gillis said, “Currently we are just curating it between 2 and 4 in the morning when we have nothing else to do but we think it’s important work and we’d love to ask you to join the cause if serious games are of interest to you.”

Africa Games Week continues today 24th February 2022 and will come to an end tomorrow 25th February 2022 in Cape Town, South Africa.