Gaming studios with investment sizes of Dh 16 million and above make UAE their new home
AD Games and DMCC Gaming Centre will also boost game development in UAE
Dubai: The UAE is fast emerging as a sought-after destination for gaming industry giants and start-ups, and could soon see the birth of the first high-budget game to be fully developed within the country. With investments of Dh 16 million and above, the UAE’s tech ecosystem, strategic location, and strong government backing have enticed top gaming companies and start-ups to establish their presence in the region.
This has led to a surge in job opportunities, economic growth, and the development of innovative games that cater to both regional and global audiences.
Take the Dubai-based Farcana gaming studio, for example. Farcana is an AAA game (a classification used within the video gaming industry to signify high-budget, high-profile games) developed on the blockchain ecosystem with battle royale mode.
Ilman Shazhaev, Founder and CEO of Farcana, set up his studio in Dubai a year ago. The game, currently in pre-production, could be one of the first AAA games to be fully develop in the UAE. Usually, gamers in the region play games set in the US, Europe, China and South Korea.
Designed with a solid eSport focus, Farcana transports players to a colonised Mars, where they engage in 4v4 PvP (a multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between human players) combat matches across various game modes.
Last month, we conducted our first public playtest for gamers worldwide. We gave gamers the chance to compete for a Bitcoin-backed prize pool worth nearly $30,000, and we had over 30,000 gamers sign up for the event, and a few 1000 are playing the game… we also have a 40 per cent retention,” said Shazhaev.
We have 100,000 followers on Twitter and a fast-growing community. Most of our gamers are from the UAE, and we have many Middle East-based gaming influencers who played the game during the playtest.
– Ilman Shazhaev, Founder and CEO of Farcana Studios.
Talent recruitment wasn’t a challenge
According to the studio’s CEO, Shazhaev said he found recruiting game developers in the UAE easy. “I was able to hire top gaming professionals, one of whom has worked on 120 gaming titles in his 17-year career. I could recruit talented developers from Eastern Europe, Russia, and CIS nations, many of whom moved here after the Russia-Ukraine war,” he said.
About 20 per cent of his workforce is from the UAE. “Top gaming developers made the UAE their home, especially after they heard about the Middle Eastern governments investing heavily in the industry,” he added. The Chechen national moved to the UAE after a five-year stint in China. “This is my fifth company in four years. However, this is my first gaming venture,” said Shazhaev.
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