In a press release today, IGN announced a partnership with T-Break Media where the two companies will publish IGN Middle East, in an effort to bring "gaming and entertainment content to more than 15 countries in the Middle East and North Africa region, including United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, Egypt and Morcco."
IGN prides itself as the "leading Internet media and services provider focused on the video game and entertainment enthusiast markets," and owns GameSpy.com, 1UP.com, as well as others.
Given how many attitudes in popular culture may not perceive the Middle East as, not exactly up to date with technology, and video games alongside it, it can be difficult to see IGN's logic in their attempt to penetrate the Middle East market. However, a March article on msnbc.com claims that the Middle East has "one of the fastest growing communities of online gamers in the world...About 60% of the 350 million people in the Arab world are younger than 25, with Internet penetration in the region at about 70 million users." Obviously IGN sees the benefit in tapping such a large market, one that is expected to grow.
However, they may have a bit of a struggle ahead of them. In an interview with Forbes, Jordan-based game developer Quirkat's CEO Mahmoud Ali Khasanweh said, "The Middle East is probably 2-3 years behind the Western markets in terms of the opening up of the gamer demographic to a more universal audience, particularly in terms of console gaming. We're seeing the market eve out in terms of gender in online casual games on platforms such as Facebook, but even in the online space browser based MMOs are again male-dominated."
IGN's International Business Development Director, Adam Doree, remains confident, saying, "The Middle East is a truly exciting world market...and we're thrilled to be working with T-Break to introduce IGN Middle East to a vast audience of gamers."
The content will be available in both Arabic and English.
