Press Release: Africa Games Week 2022

As the world lifts the latest COVID-19 travel restrictions, the Africa Games Week team and the City of Cape Town are looking forward to the rescheduled event happening in February 2022.

Africa Games Week was originally scheduled for early December 2021.

“When we decided to restore the live component to Africa Games Week in 2021, we did so with the understanding that it would only go ahead if we could keep our staff, speakers, delegates and partners safe. The new variant presented too many unknowns to let the live portion of the event continue in good conscience,” says event co-founder, Rex Bowden.

“And while we could have moved the event to a fully virtual format, we believed it would compromise too much on the excellent program we had developed with all the Hosted Buyers, Creators and Developers we were flying out from Africa and other parts of the world. Our 2021 (now 2022) event is all about growing and strengthening the African Developer and Creator community through developing new, stronger relationships through in-person meetings and experiences.  The additional time has allowed some great new sponsors to join our program like VALVE-Steam and increased the attendance of international industry.”

Africa Games Week 2022 remains a hybrid event, live at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town and virtually on the event platform from the 23rd to the 25th of February. Africa Games Week is the largest gathering of African Game Developers in the world, with over 150 developers from across the continent gathering in one place.

Geordin Hill-Lewis, City of Cape Town mayor, says they are proud to support and be host city to Africa Game Week. “Gaming is fast becoming one of the most important and innovative sectors in technology. It is an area that cuts across various industries, creating solutions in entertainment and education, and has the potential for investment and major job creation opportunities.”

“As the City of Cape Town, our goal is to provide more support to this industry, including putting in place infrastructure and other mechanisms that enable it to thrive. Our support for events such as Africa Games Week is aimed at ensuring that game developers, especially the youth, have platforms to display their work while also meeting industry experts who can elevate their skills.”

Across the world, gaming is big business and Africa Games Week explores the business of gaming.

Founded in 2018 by Nick Hall (Interactive Entertainment SA) and Rex Bowden (CATALYZE), Africa Games Week is a destination event for African and International Indie game developers and C level Executives from across the world. Companies such as Xbox, PlayStation, Ubisoft, Unity, Nintendo, Sega, Focus, Devolver, Landfall and many others come together, meet and plan for future projects.

“Africa Games Week 2022 is bringing together core Gaming industry and community representatives; creators, developers and publishers; from across Africa to meet and connect over 3 days,” says Bowden. “Our program focuses on creating more personal opportunities for connection and knowledge-sharing between the greatest minds in the African gaming industry; another reason going fully virtual in 2021 would have detracted from the event’s value. We hope this will foster partnerships in the growth of the African Game Dev industry locally and internationally.”

Africa Games Week 2022 is the umbrella event for multiple sub-events.

The Make Games Africa – Business of Gaming conference is joined by the Nordic Game Discovery Contest (Sweden) and will showcase the A MAZE (Berlin) Train Jam, which occurred online in December 2021.

Africa StreamCon, a conference and meet-up for African and International content creators, is bringing in advertising agencies, platforms, brands, lawyers and creators to explain to each other how they see the industry developing to create a shared perspective and goals.

Games for Change, who empower game creators and social innovators to drive real-world change using games and immersive media, will be launching their African Chapter during this year’s event; in preparation for their first African satellite event in 2022.