‘Rubik’s Digital’s young software developers are helping tell Africa’s stories through e-sports and gaming,’ - Anthony Okeyo
It’s eight o’clock in the morning in East Africa, and a board meeting is underway just a few metres from the Wilson Airport, about six kilometres southwest of Nairobi’s central business district.
Anthony Okeyo, the chief executive officer (CEO) of the social gaming company Rubik’s Digital, six board members and seven staff members sit around the table. They are all techies.
“It’s a meeting of equals,” says Okeyo, an electrical and electronic engineering graduate of the University of Nairobi. “At Rubik’s, we see ourselves as pioneers in a new realm — e-sports.”
Rubik’s Digital has quickly proven itself as a gaming innovator that nurtures young software developers to create compelling content for e-sports.
“In essence, we purposely design mobile-based video games to entertain, educate and inform our target audience, particularly the youth,” Okeyo explains.
Connecting more Africans through mobile phone
According to industry reports, about 28 per cent of the population in sub-Saharan Africa is connected to the Internet, including 186 million who play video games.
With 98 million new mobile Internet subscribers expected by 2025, the region represents a very promising market for the gaming industry, especially in Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and South Africa.
But what kind of market?
Unprecedented large-scale gambling across Kenya in 2019 got Okeyo thinking. “The government had a problem with gambling,” he thought. “Sports betting or gambling, as some called it, was drawing in thousands of youths who spent all their time and money in the activity.”
Kenyans were concerned.
In a study of sub-Saharan gambling online, scholars from Ghana, Malawi and elsewhere found that gaming applications often centered on European sports, with European companies supplying the technology and Africans promoting it locally.
“There needed to be an alternative that was better, safer — a counter-narrative,” Okeyo recalls, describing the inspiration for Rubik’s Digital.
Changing the narrative
In the gaming industry, differentiation matters.
“From what I’ve seen and learned, local gamers enjoy local content. People like what they can relate to, what resonates with their way of life,” says Okeyo. “It’s important to understand the context in which you are setting up an e-gaming firm.”
Okeyo sees culture as an important asset in developing content. As such, the innovators at Rubik’s Digital are developing video games inspired by diverse African folklore. In the process, they are helping to preserve the people’s rich heritage and history.
“Many aspects of our African culture are dying out. I’m looking at e-gaming as an avenue for cultural preservation. That’s my motivation,” he quips. “It has informed the kinds of games we develop.”
It is a much-needed niche.
“Only through innovation and technology can we relive authentic African stories. Our video games allow individuals or teams to play for fun, or they can register and play in award-winning tournaments,” he said during an interview.
Reimagining Ajua for a new generation
Ajua, a much-played Rubik’s Digital game, aligns with that philosophy. A team of young innovators turned this traditional board game —popular in East and Central Africa — into a dynamic mobile App.
In Ajua, played with pebbles, two opponents move around the shallow holes carved out of a wooden board.
Not so long ago, the game brought people together, with modest crowds gathering to cheer the players on as they cracked jokes and aimed jibes at each other. In Kenya, Ajua was even a competitive sport organized in a league.
It was a tradition in danger of dying out. But, thanks to the e-gaming innovation of Rubik’s Digital, it may find a new generation of fans online.
While developing the Ajua App, the Rubik’s team was conscious of the diversity of East Africa.
“For Kenya, it was simply Ajua,” notes Okeyo. “For Tanzania and the East African coastal region, we built Bao, and for Uganda, Omweso. Of course, all are just Ajua, but the idea is relevance in name, if not anything else.”
Entering the local markets
On the efforts of Western video gaming companies to penetrate the African market, Okeyo says: “They are much better off here with content that Africans relate to.” They need to study the market.
For example, the high cost of gadgets required to play video games has slowed the growth of e-sports in Africa. So, Rubik’s targets low-income earners.
“We develop Apps that can run on cheap, low-storage Android phones, which many of our prospective clients can afford,” Okeyo says.
The firm also built the robust delivery platform PlayOn Games, available on Android Apps on Google Play.
Rubik’s Digital is developing several exciting video gaming concepts around African legends and folklore from different parts of the continent. Once complete, Okeyo says they will offer the African audience a repertoire of compelling e-sports content.
Kenya has now joined Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco and South Africa in the continent’s e-sports league. Furthermore, Kenya, Nigeria and Senegal have formed e-sports federations.
“There is a clamour for a piece of the pie. I can see it,” Okeyo marvels. “I encourage young people to innovate on the global stage and create what’s authentically African.”
Doing that will put African developers in an e-sports league of their own.
