GAMING IN NIGERIA

The video Game industry is one of the largest entertainment industires in the world. With over 3 billion people playing, over $152 billion of total revenue and having its own competitive sport scenes with Esports theres no sign of it slowing down anytime soon.

So how does such a big industry work in Nigeria?

There are a lot of challenges in gaming in Nigeria;

• Bad economy affects the proce of games and gaming hardware
• Lack of consistent and good power supply
• Poor ISP making online gaming difficult and frustating
• Lack of support from gaming companies

BAD ECONOMY: With the state of the countries economy purchasing games and video games hardware is almost a luxury. With the Nigerian currency (NAIRA) equivalent to 0.0025 US dollars, that is $1 = ₦395. This makes importing hardware for gaming and the games themselves incredbily expensive and difficult to access.

LACK OF POWER SUPPLY: In the country Nigeria, electricy/ power supply is very inconsistent and poor. One good go days without receiving power and most times the electrical volts supplied isn’s ideal for use. Nigerians fall back to using fuel or diseled powered generators which is hard to maintain and fuel or battery/solar powered inverters which is expensive to install.

POOR ISP: The internet service in Nigeria are incredibly poor for today’s standards. With 4G LTE networks barely hitting 20mps and some as low as 600kbps. Not only are they slow but they are quite expensive and tend to get exhausted very quickly making online gaming difficult and frustrating as lagging is a consistent issue in Nigeria.

LACK OF SUPPORT FROM THE INDUSTRY: Companies such as sony, microsoft, steam, and other gaming companies fail to see Nigeria as a relevant market to invest in. Therefore they don’t push their services and products like they do in other countries which makes accessing those products and services difficult and expensive.

Despite all these complications and short-comings gaming in Nigeria is still very present and ever growing. With various organisations, Clans, and Communities getting involved, with it even having Esports event. It will only get bigger from here, and hopefully it will get enough recognition to get the support it needs to grow even more.

Cassidy, J.E -20/12/2020