SA gaming needs cash injection
The South African gaming industry must build competency in game design and produce local success stories to attract more investment before it can compete globally, says Danny Day, the chief executive of QCF Design.
Speaking at a New Media and Open Source seminar organised by the Cape IT Initiative (CITI) last week, Day lambasted the lack of financial and infrastructure support to game developers from the South African banks.
"If you speak to bank managers and you tell them about the game design business they are very dismissive because they don’t take it seriously. The current environment is not encouraging for entrepreneurs in the game design space and we are losing good talent to overseas markets," Day says.
Despite these challenges Day has forged an active community of game developers under the Game.Dev banner, giving developers a platform to showcase and evaluate each other’s work. The group has a forum, www.gamedotdev.co.za, which has all the latest developments by SA designers across all the major metropolitan areas. Day made a strong call for the private sector to lend financial support in order to establish a formal incubator where developers can work on their innovations and act as a publisher for local content.
The earning potential in the gaming industry is so huge that last year the international industry generated more earnings than Hollywood Box office movies, excluding DVD sales. Nearly $18 billion was generated from gaming sales in the US alone in 2007, an increase of 47% from the 2006 sales.
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