Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), the video game division of Sony, announced on Friday the launch of the Middle East North Africa Hero Project (MENA Hero Project). This is the extension to the Middle East and North Africa, including Morocco, of a vast project to mentor, train and invest in video-game talent in several regions of the world.
Today begins the new journey for our Hero Project as we embark on identifying and supporting new talents across the MENA region.https://t.co/O7VuV1o6J6@yosp @griepagmailcom1
— MENAHeroProject (@SIE_MENA) August 23, 2024
Sony’s aim is to identify promising talents and support them in developing new games, in order to offer a diversity of content and support growth in the video games medium, where the Japanese giant is leader in the current-generation home console segment, with the Playstation 5.
« The Hero Project incubator programs aim to identify promising local developers and support them in bringing compelling gaming experiences to global gaming communities. Through the MENA Hero Project we aim to drive growth and innovation with game developers in the MENA region » according to the official SIE blog.
The countries involved in this new initiative are Morocco, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt and Tunisia.
It is now possible for Moroccan video game developers to apply to the program via the following link.
Hero Project was previously launched in China (China Hero Project) and India (India Hero Project). Several original creations are supported by Sony’s program, starting in China with the games ANNO: Mutationem (PS5, PS4, Switch and PC), F.I.S.T: Forged in Shadow Torch (PS5, PS4, Steam PC) and Lost Soul Aside (PS5, PS4, PC). More recently, India Hero Project has financed games such as Fishbowl (PS5, PC), Requital: Gates of Blood (PS5, PC) and Mukti (PC, PS5). These games cover several platforms, including Sony, PC and Nintendo Switch.
By supporting, including financially, independent developers and talents in several regions of the world, Sony is opening up new markets. The Tokyo-based firm also ensures a diversity of content and a pool of talent to flesh out the software catalog of its consoles alongside its in-house studios and major third-party studios. At a time when video game development costs are reaching stratospheric levels, surpassing those of Hollywood blockbusters, and growth is slowing down, in-house risk-taking is declining among the major video-game multinationals in favor of sequel development and cross-media (adaptation into films, series, etc.). Hero Project’s strategy is therefore to keep things fresh and unearth new talent by supporting independent studios that are still unknown to the market.
Get ready, fight!
Sony’s initiative comes at a time when the Moroccan government is also showing a growing interest in the video game industry. Despite the closure several years ago of Ubi Soft Casablanca, a subsidiary of the major French editor, the Kingdom seems interested in developing the sector. In 2021, Mehdi Bensaïd, Minister of Youth, Culture and Communication, announced plans to create a gaming ecosystem in Morocco, which he estimated would generate several billion dirhams. He had announced contracts with Sony and Ubi Soft in particular, without however detailing their terms for the moment. The Minister also announced the imminent start of construction of the « gaming city » in Rabat, with a budget of 260 million dirhams. The government has also supported the organization of the first Moroccan Gaming Expo, and several private initiatives are also regularly announced, supported in particular by operators Maroc Telecom, Orange and Inwi.
The video game industry generated worldwide revenues of $184 billion by 2022, well ahead of the film and music industries ($26 billion). However, the sector’s growth has slowed in recent years, due in particular to rising interest rates, increasing development costs and the backlash from the period of financial speculation following strong growth during the Covid. The result: a wave of layoffs that hit the sector hard in 2023 and 2024. However, the sector is highly competitive, offering content on mobile, consoles and PC as well as several genres for young and old audiences and a variety of business models (free-to-play, subscriptions, online and offline purchases, etc.).
