"When you know Africa and its history it's easy to make a game that will speak to the whole continent"

• "If I make you a game today about corruption, it will speak to everyone on the continent"

Pocket Gamer Connects Jordan returns on November 9th and 10th, 2024, offering you a chance to gain insights into the world’s fastest-growing games market, MENA.

As part of our MENA coverage and run-up to the event, we caught up with Masseka Games founder Teddy Kossoko who spoke to us about his company’s initiatives to grow and promote video games in Africa by telling African stories.

Born and raised in the Central African Republic (CAR), Kossoko has made Forbes’ 30 most influential young people under 30 list on the African continent. We also discussed the challenges and opportunities facing the African games industry and how his company plans to overcome them.

Tell us a bit about Masseka Game Studio and what you’re up to right now?

Teddy Kossoko: Masseka Game Studio is a games company I started when I was a computer science student. In 2018, I officially created it in France and it's the first games studio in Europe to focus on African stories. We have several games lined up at the moment including the Legend of Mulu, which highlights the indigenous peoples of Africa.

How many staff do you currently employ, where are they based?

Masseka is part of a group of which my distribution company Gara, is a member. We have a total of around 25 people with some based in Africa, India and France. We are very involved in training and developing talent in Africa. I know young people in gaming and design scenarios in almost every African country. I have my own talent base where I coach young people and we also have a French-funded incubator that I run with the founder of Kayfo Games in Senegal to boost the ecosystem.

What inspired you to focus exclusively on African cultures and histories in your game development? 

I describe myself as a tech person with a strong background in storytelling as opposed to being a basic video games developer. I love Africa and I'm a history lover. However, I’ve found that most Africans don't know the history of Africa, and the African diaspora is just as ignorant. In 2014, I decided to make games about Africa to tell stories. I'm not much of a teacher but video games have helped me to tell the story of Africa yesterday and today.

I read a lot and we have a lot of documentation. I also travel a lot around towns and villages of many African countries and work with researchers and historians. My company is also linked to the world of research and politics which gives us access to a lot of information and I have a team throughout Africa.

How have your games been received internationally? 

Our games are very popular in Africa which is our target market. I'm not very interested in the European market because it's not challenging enough. It's already structured.

In Africa, people need representation, so our games have always received positive reviews. Every week I get lots of emails from people all over the continent congratulating us. That helps us a lot.

Our biggest initiative is our distribution platform. We have the first payment infra for gaming in Africa and we've developed a platform to access games made in Africa and help creators and generate money. We are in the process of accelerating our activities.

What are some of the biggest challenges you've faced in the localisation process, and how do you maintain company culture?

For the most part, I’ve found that location is no problem when you know Africa. There are blocks that represent 10 to 20 countries at the same time. When you know Africa and its history, it's pretty easy to make a game that will speak to the whole continent. Only North Africa is very special.

If I make you a game today about corruption, it will speak to everyone on the continent.

As far as the corporate culture is concerned, I'm someone who pays attention to detail. I try to work with people who are aligned with my vision, so I can tell the story of Africa in all its grandeur, but also in all its problems. I only have warriors in my company.

Talk to us about your store. How does it adapt to the African mobile payment systems and what specific payment systems are you integrating?

We have developed partnerships with many payment operators. We've also integrated countries like the Central African Republic, Congo and Madagascar, countries that nobody cares about, but we know that there are players there. We now have 30 countries out of 54 and we have subsidiaries everywhere.

Our main services today are mobile money and credit cards. We had even developed a cash payment system but it was too complicated.

Africa has a vast number of mobile users. What do you think is the key to tapping into this audience? And why do you think some still overlook the market despite its growth potential?

We have figures on this and the reality is more complicated than the macro figures. Africa is overrated for the moment.

If we remove North Africa and South Africa which are very special cases, sub-Saharan Africa is indeed very mobile, but Chinese mobile devices (Itel and Infinix), can only play light games. Samsung is still well positioned and Huawei too, which are mid and high-end.

Also, Africans on mobile do not have the purchasing culture. We have rates of around 3% on Gara for amounts ranging from $0.15 to $3. Knowing that $3 is 2% of the mass. 3% on a premium platform is good, with our IAP tests we are close to 20%.

So we have to go and get the volume. That's good, the acquisition cost in Africa is quite low, it can drop to $0.08. This low acquisition cost is also the reason why the business model based on ads is not viable. The other reality is that there are almost 70% illiterate people. 

This requires permanent support and will take another five to ten years. With the initiatives of Carry1st, the Orange web shop that is coming and our actions, we are seeing a positive acceleration of the situation. There are also political discussions at the central bank level that will change things soon but I can’t share more on that for now.

Tell us about the changes you’ve observed in the local games industry and consumer behaviour towards games? 

There are several facts:

• The African content is interesting. We have very low customer acquisition costs.
• The Western content is very powerful because of its brand effect and everyone wants to play this content, at least hardcore gamers do.
• Most Africans don't like to pay for entertainment, you have to play on their psychology. We have succeeded in this on our side.
• Play to earn has potential.
• There is room to be taken for platforms and web shops.

What are your thoughts on emerging technologies such as AI, AR and VR in games? And do you have plans to incorporate AI into your game development process? 

VR in Africa is bullshit. Just having the devices costs an arm and a leg. An African who is already thinking about paying $0.15, do you think they will pay for a $300 headset or an Apple vision that cost $3,000? I don’t think so.

At best, it is a service company that buys headsets and does events with them. Even in Europe it is already quite complicated. Concerning AI, we will see how it evolves. We are currently using it to create love stories for our episodic games with in-app purchases. This allows us to have a scenario that is infinitely dynamic.

What are your plans for the rest of 2024 and the coming year? Will you be exploring new platforms? And are there any specific initiatives or projects on the horizon that we should look forward to?

With Masseka we are making our game The Legend of Mulu which we’ll launch on PC.

On Gara we created a platform called Kerem which is the equivalent of Tipeee or Patreon for creators. This platform will be deployed in October. There are thousands of content creators in Africa who cannot monetise their community which numbers in millions. Thanks to Kerem, they will be able to receive donations from their subscribers. Then we will offer them access to Gara and its content. Millions of "free" users.

Then, thanks to the partnerships we have with smartphones manufacturers and most watched media in Sub-Saharan Africa, we will seek volume.

Africa is indeed the future, but there is still much to do.