Jordan’s witnessing a Surge with Its Refined Gaming Industry

Video games are a multi-billion-dollar industry, and in the Middle East, the video game market is burgeoning, with Jordan leading the game. As the largest producer of digital games in the region, Jordan contributes about 60 per cent of the games developed in the Middle East.

In the last few years Jordan’s gaming industry has witnessed a significant boom. Recently the nation established new gaming labs to meet the growing interest in digital game development. With a host to three existing gaming labs — in Amman, Irbid and Aqaba, Jordan aims to encourage young generation to explore their talent into gaming.

Jordan’s high mobile penetration rate has led many startups in the nation to produce active digital games, the prominent ones being:

Tamatem

In its short span of existence, Tamatem has published 40 games with over 26M downloads to date. The company is still enhancing its games to cater to the taste of its Arab audience. The company grew by 155% in 2015 and is expecting 200% growth in 2016.

Play 3arabi

Play 3arabi is a mobile game publisher focused on the MENA region. Play 3arabi identifies successful international games that fit the region’s users, licenses them then localizes and publishes them in Arabic.

Bee Labs

Founded in 2013, Bee Labs shot to fame with its Shibshib War game, (which was ranked Best New App on Apple’s App store). The company also signed a partnership with the British company, Palringo.

Na3m Games

Na3m produces digital content for Arab audiences.

Maysalward

Maysalward is one of the oldest digital gaming companies in Jordan; launched in 2003, is the first mobile game development company in the Middle East. Last year, Maysalward in cooperation with Zain Jordan launched the first Arabic version of the global digital game “Cut the Rope 2”.

Article By NAUSHEEN SHAMSHER
Waleg