Gaming has undoubtedly started to become popular worldwide. The global aspect of gaming meant that more and more people could show their expertise while having fun. Gaming tournaments have become one of the highest paying in the world, which confirms that gaming has taken over. In 2019, “Bugha” at the age of 16, won 3 million dollars only from one competition. You get it now? Gaming is big. However, we are not here to talk about Esports, that’s for another time. This article is about gaming in Qatar, not necessarily competitive gaming but the fascination with games in general. When Virtuocity opened at Doha Festival City, young boys and girl flocked the place playing some of the most popular games at the moment like Fortnite, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Overwatch, Dota 2 and League of Legends.
So, if all these games have dominated the market, is there any room for local games to thrive in a highly competitive market?
To clarify, I am not talking about the games you play competitively in tournaments and such; I am talking about regular games that you play on your phone when you are trying to avoid saying hi to someone or when you are bored in class.
Several games have popped up on the App Store or Google Play that are made by Qatari developers. Games like Beyond Solar, Jumpo and Deadly Trap are all made by indie game developers where most of the downloads are coming from Qatar. Despite the number of downloads being demanded, but why are the developers not leading the gaming market in Qatar, considering how popular it is here? For Beyond Solar, for example, there are several reviews, more than 50 to be specific and almost all were five stars. Users were praising the smooth software and according to Gary_Cally_pro, “ridiculously good graphics”. So why are the ratings and reviews relevant and why do you readers care. Well, they are related because, for relatively “smaller” game, the reviews are exceptional. Even though we do not know if all the reports are accurate, since almost all had five stars, we technically cannot accurately know how well the game is doing. The smaller and recently developed games in Qatar do not compete with the ones abroad like the United States because of the relatively lower market here.
Even though Beyond Solar is a Qatari made game, it had more than 70+ ratings in the United States App Store and only about 11 for the one in the Qatari store. The numbers are relatively low throughout both countries but it also raises the question of why is the game more popular abroad? If developers here want to make a name for themselves or try to make it in this competitive field, their competition is with games abroad and not ones locally made, this allows them to branch out some more and not limit themselves to a specific group.
So, what next?
“I wouldn’t mind playing a game that is made by a Qatari developer, but the thing is, I only like competitive games and not apps,” said Sultan Al-Awajan who is part of the clan CyRx. Here is the thing, yes, it is good that people here are creating their own games. Yes, they are starting out small by creating applications. How about in the near future, we see a game made by a Qatari developer that could be played online and competitively. These competitive games are undoubtedly popular, we have streamers and gamers supporting them as well. What we are missing is for that to be here, we have the resources and we have the people, we just need the game developed.
I am sounding hopeful because Qatar is in fact starting out small with the applications but in order to become popular, a competitive game would not hurt.
talkk.tech.blog 