Intel unveiled the Intel Soccer Challenge 2008, SA's first online soccer game, at this year's Rage Expo, held at the Coca-cola Dome in Northgate.
The expo also played host to the finals of the World Cyber Games - the winner will compete against the world's top gamers in Germany at the end of the year.
The Rage Expo showcased new gaming technologies, console and PC games. The Acer Predator desktop gaming PC, the HP Touch Smart computer as well as the Microsoft Home Server were also on display. The Rage Expo hosted the largest LAN network in Africa.
Intel South Africa sponsored the SA qualifier for DreamHack, where gamers battled it out against one another in Call of Duty 4. Intel and Gigabyte presented supercomputers with 3.3GHZ processors that overclocked to 6GHZ and were then cooled using liquid nitrogen, to a temperature of -195 degrees Celsius.
Clive Jandrell, CEO of Megarom Interactive SA, importer and distributor of PC, PlayStation and Xbox360 games, says: “It's an exciting time for us because in the past six years, we've been seeing huge growth in the gaming industry. We've seen a growth in the market share by 15%. We're proud to announce that Activision has the highest sales worldwide. We look forward to more substantial growth in the future. From October, we've been elected as the distributor for Activision Blizzard. Fifteen years ago, Activision and Electronic Arts started a gaming snowball effect, which has gathered momentum, and we are proud to be associated in this development. It cost $23 million to develop Call of Duty 4.”
SA is perceived as an emerging market for gaming distribution, according to Activision Blizzard, but the industry is seeing a huge boom in gaming purchases, as well as more female gamers coming into the market.
“Last year, South Africa saw a 57% increase in year-on-year growth in gaming sales,” Jandrell says. “One of the challenges affecting online gaming is the cost in bandwidth. With new broadband infrastructure coming in next year, we are hoping this will improve online gaming. Another concern of ours is how the US economy will affect gaming sales.”
Jandrell adds: “There is now an evolution in gaming - it's no longer being seen as an anti-social activity; it's become highly competitive and interactive. Homes are becoming more important to people and we're seeing more families participate in gaming. This is especially evident after the emergence of Nintendo's Wii. On average, SA will take 30 000 game titles, and we expect this figure to grow. While in Russia, we see a staggering 500 000 game titles being purchased.”
Jandrell concludes: “Gaming challenges the mind, improves hand-eye co-ordination and we are now targeting a newer generation of gamers to show them the benefits of gaming.”
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