Ma3racer’s Win At Pivot East: Positive News For Kenya’s Gaming Industry

Gaming is not a huge industry in Kenya as it is in more developed countries. There is a gaming culture and there have been a number exhibitions and competitions over the past decade, but locally produced games have not really caught on.

Kenya’s overall tech space has grown and some developments have received regional and worldwide recognition. The country is now considered as the continent’s technological hub and there has been a rise in application development, mostly for mobile, as it has the highest penetration.

With all this gains, gaming has been left out. Although you may come across a few on app shops, they rarely make tech news. Supporting components for game development like 3-D modeling, animation and application building are growing and are more lucrative ventures on their own.

The most high profile gaming project has been the Homeboyz-produced and Warner Bros-funded video game a couple of years ago, which was to feature Kenyan artistes. But the tide might be turning. Three of the five finalists at the Pivot East 2012 tech competition this week were games. The winner in the category was Ma3racer, a Planet Rackus-developed racing game application set in Nairobi.

The entry also garnered the more votes than every other entrant in the other categories to be crowned the overall winner of this year’s Pivot East, a big achievement considering this year’s event had entries from all over East Africa. This bodes well for the gaming industry as it shows that experts and investors saw financial value in a local entertainment product.