Virtual reality (VR) has a bad name due to the misadventures of Meta/Facebook, and continually disastrous efforts to stage corporate events in the “metaverse”.
It is also expensive, with high-resolution headsets out of reach of the average earner. Put another way, it is not exactly designed for the African continent.
But there are several sides to VR.
In contrast to the global perception of a frivolous sector, two recent events in South Africa highlighted its business potential for movie-making and gaming across Africa.
In December, the Games for Change Africa festival in Cape Town was overseen by Sea Monster, the country’s leading developer of VR games and educational material.
The content was anything but frivolous. The keynote address, by Sea Monster CEO and co-founder Glenn Gillis, was on “The ecosystem of serious games”. The company’s head of client service, Lebo Lekoma, addressed the audience on “Business challenges of the serious games industry”.
This week, Lekoma elaborated on his theme: “Not only can the sector help drive positive change in fields such as education, financial literacy and skills development, but impact gaming can also promote job creation and help foster diversity and inclusivity.
“In order for that to happen, however, there has to be widespread recognition of the role that games can play in solving some of the biggest challenges faced by the continent and the world at large.
“But there also needs to be an examination of how the gaming sector has been exclusionary in the past and what can be done to make it a more inclusive space for those who have traditionally felt shut out.”
Terms like “impact” and “serious” games or “games for change” encapsulate the new thinking that is needed, as they mirror the structural complexities of real-world situations and scenarios.
“Africa can make use of the available technologies to ensure that the continent has a new story to tell,” said Lekoma. “More specifically, games can give people across Africa the agency to shape their own narratives and their own futures.”
The “impact games” category is estimated to have grown from a value of $3.5bn (R59.8bn) in 2018 to an expected $24bn by next year. Lekoma believes Africa can not only grab a slice of that pie, but dramatically expand it.
“The continent is home to more than 1.2-billion people, 60% of whom are under the age of 25. Connectivity is also becoming increasingly affordable, fast and ubiquitous. Together those factors mean the continent is ripe to embrace both traditional games and games for impact in a big way.”
Africa has a habit of leapfrogging technological hurdles and coming out ahead of countries considered more developed
— Multichoice
The point was made eloquently by this week’s 2023 Joburg Film Festival, hosted by MultiChoice, which set aside a dedicated space at the event for VR filmmaking.
It showcased four VR films — two from South Africa and one each from the US and Taiwan. The first local production, Azibuye — The Occupation, originally premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in the US in 2020. It follows two homeless artist/activists who occupy a crumbling mansion in an affluent part of Johannesburg.
The second, Container, confronts modern slavery and the experience of migrants through an ever-transforming shipping container. It was screened at the 78th Venice International Film Festival and the Tribeca Festival 2022.
“Africa has a habit of leapfrogging technological hurdles and coming out ahead of countries considered more developed,” MultiChoice said in a statement.
“While VR is still a novelty technology in much of the rest of the world, it is flourishing in Africa in the gaming, health-care, mining, advertising and property industries, and is being explored as a tool in education.
“The expansion of the tech will create its own value chain, which will help filmmakers transition more easily into VR production — giving our own storytellers the opportunity to innovate, dream, think and push boundaries on their own terms.”
* Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za
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