New publisher to target Middle Eastern gaming market

oh my oh my is that real Finlay an Arabs games company im so glade even when it was disappointing that its only for phones (i hpe for apple) and pcs but who knows these is just the beginning i advise them to co-op with sony

I seen some Iranians editing the animation of God of War III and so much more, starting small like this... Hope they get to the higher places. AllahAkhbar!!!

PC gaming here is corrupted because of the piracy :( But PS3 sells like water here!!! I can pre-ordered games from Singaporean Website for only 45USD!! i dont know what region the game was( like 1,2,3 ) glad i live in South East Asia :)

@snake-ala You either don't live in Middle East or you live under a rock , dude, gaming is expensive , how many kids you know can afford a brand new 60$ game? I know non and all of the gamers I know are either college students (who get a salary) or people with jobs, get your facts right before you post.

"appropriately localized games and media" every game publisher attempting to enter the middle east market is insanely trying to tone down some of the gore, violence or nudity as if all middle eastern gamers are only kids. We all loved games as they are and still do. And if games like Uncharted 3 gets a special version for the middle east with some scenes removed, I will import it. I'm not a kid and publishers have no right to tell me "hey, you are not a man enough to see these kind of stuff, cuz ur a kid!"

@Zidan4000 or a game voiced by Adel Imam...

@neosantana Imagine a game like GTA getting localized in Saudi Arabic , man that would be insanely epic.

@yamen_1 i love those games too ya yameni!

and here i thought it something related to ps3.....

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Middle eastern, and not caring. We get all kinds of games here, from all regions. (EU, US and JP) But having games with an Arabic flavor would be nice.(God knows Europeans are digging our films, let's see what they think of our games) Especially if a game is funny.

in my country we have all games and all gamers buy the original game for Ps3 and Xbox 360 and other console but for the pc the sales always low because not so much people play on PC

Im interested to see what they can come up with. Since were so used to seeing Japanese and Western style games. I guess I thought for some reason they arent very popular in the middle east, even though I have a friend in the UAE with a PS3 and Wii lol.

I am middle eastern and lived there for a few years and they had expensive video games, some of really low quality as well. To add on to that, the only actual popular games in the middle east I know of are FIFA among the adults and Sonic among the children. Hopefully the Arab gaming community continues to grow with a more variety of games in their area. :D

Go go, Red Stallion! :D

well by middle east they mean gulf countries, in where i live buying games will result in bankruptcy, and even if we got the games there are no servers near us so the ping rate would be like 500ms plus. also i really don't get it, if they lower the price depending on each country's currency and get a copy right for it so using pirated games would be illegal they can get extra income for something that already paid back!

Wish them the best of luck. Hopefully something fresh comes from this...leaving the "trotten path".

Sweet. The more of the world involved in gaming, the more interesting influences and storylines we'll get in games. Hope the Red Stallion lives up to its name and hurries!

And how will they distribute there games knowing everything in the middle east is pirated,you can go into local shops in any arab country and buy pirated media,i don't think this company will end up being successful

Northampton, Massachusetts: Arab capitol of the world :P

Dude mobile and PC?! What happened to consoles?! I'm cool with the games here in qatar they're all exported only they cost an equivalent of $65-$70 but nothing else is bad here! In fact we even get limited and collector editions for most games! So why do we need this?! ---Allah Akbar!!!---

@zidan4000 Yeah well, here the ideal cost for a new game is 300, which is a goddamn lot. Basically, by current currency, it translates to this: 300 ILS == 81.01$. 21$ dollars more than the average American/European price.

great its about time we arabs get our turn

@johny300 I remember buying Uncharted 2 a whole week before the official release date, my American friends on PSN were like WTF dude? where did you get that from ? lol.

"Growing appetite? I've been an avid gamer since the Sega Mega Drive and so do many people and friends I know. We have access to everything in the Middle East so distribution means nothing. Almost any game can be acquired digitally now.

@helldude90 lol in my region it was called family game and it was white and red, was it the same? Edit: here's the mounstrosity, the poorman's NES... http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_zUX5_5SnKAU/S7EFtim0MNI/AAAAAAAAAVI/ydTTAVM7mRM/s1600/family2.jpg

i buy all my games digitally now, so i don't care about distribution. as for development, i'm very skeptic. there are so many things that hinder the development of good games here. piracy, high bandwidth costs, zero modding culture, few opportunities for programmers and artists, just to name a few. it will be a long time before we see good games coming from middle east.

Growing appetite??? Dude we were gamers since the nes but in our region it was called famicom family

@zidan4000 Exactly and all the games come out early too.

I am not aware of prices here in Jordan..but sometimes when I visit Virgin megastores games usually 70 JD thats about 100$..which is tottaly rip off. I buy my games online and get them shipped to Jordan via Aramex's Shop and Ship service.

@supertom221 It depends on where you live and which store you get your games from , for example if you live in Saudi Arabia, games there have the American market price which is 60$ aka 225 SAR. I don't know about the other Middle Eastern countries.

Who cares? we always had all the games here in Middle East, what I love is that you can find all versions of the games here, let it be Asian,European or American , it is great to have all regions of games to choose from :D.

if it is a quality game, I don't care what culture they are trying to promote, Japanese culture was the coolest in the previous generation. Also the games here (in Dubai) cost exactly as their counterpart in the US, they are directly converted from dollars, the only exception is the hardware which are converted from European Euros. I wished they opened an office in Dubai so that I could apply with them :)

. . . But we already have games here?. But they are so freakin' costly because of the importing it's never worth it. I'll be following this. hopefully it will fix the horrible market prices.

what type of games will they make? what genre?

hope they would bring some good games, not clones like unearted.

Good luck to em

Cool. They might bring a new style to the gaming industry.

Lolwut?

I guess I never really thought that the middle east would be have large enough of a gaming community for a publisher to focus solely on that region. But hey, if there is a demand to be filled and they can make money, good for them, that's the basis for capitalism.

I think that's a very intelligent financial decision. I hope to it won't be completely region specific. I would love to play those games if they are any good. But what I really can't wait to see is when American game devs start to consider the Chinese markets. I live in china and know a ton of guys who game, but devs don't get that they already have a huge market because all the games are either imported from Japan or they are pirated.

@Mikreant: weak..weak weak

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Honestly, I initially wanted to pop in and make some sarcastic joke. I hesitated, though. If gaming is what it takes to build the bridges that are needed then more power to it. Light the way.

this is cool. here in the middle east we love video games. especially in LAN cafes. i remember playing counter strike and C&C Generals LAN a lot.

I applaud what they're trying to do, but I've been to the Middle East several times and everyone just buys pirated games there....lol. Governments in the Middle East are trying to get rid of pirated media, but it will take time for the problem to go. For now, there's not much money to be made there as far as game sales go. I guess in Dubai, the rest of the UAE, and Qatar people are more willing to buy real games than the rest of the Middle East.

Diversity can only be a good thing in my book. Some of my favorite games were created from rural developer/publisher relations based in eastern Europe (Witcher) and New Zealand (Shatter). The future could be bright, but as always time will tell.

AT LAST!!! ?? ???? ???!

I like the additional competition. It keeps those fat cats (Activision, EA, etc.) on their toes. I look forward to see what projects they have in the future.

Sounds pretty good, though it's not as big of a deal as some people are going to make it out to be. *sits back and waits for racists*