CAIRO: On the streets in front of the Pyramids, a group of children play football, not unlike the scene taking place a hundred meters up the road, where a group of kids sit huddled around a television screen playing FIFA. In Egypt, soccer is the main game of choice for these kids. The place is known as “Fair Play.” Fair Play looks like a mix between a night club and a gaming center, with its conveniently separated private booths, loud dance music and dark atmosphere. What you can see inside is a handful of kids, playing football on the Playstation 3. They are often used by the young local children, some as young as 7, and offer a limited selection of games. Through piracy, video games can be distributed on a more affordable level, and as a result, systems that have not yet been replicated efficiently remain beyond most gamer's reach. “Here we have only football and shooting,” Zain, a young boy playing his friends, told Bikyamasr.com. When someone discusses great videogames or gaming culture, Cairo is certainly not often spoken of. On the surface, Egypt doesn't seem to have a vibrant gaming culture. Through small alleyways and scattered around seemingly random locations, video gaming cafes are an oddity. The market is dominated by knock offs and cyber café's because many Egyptians cannot afford to buy a console and the games. Due to their availability and low cost, older consoles are the gaming rig of choice at home for the lower classes. As was illustrated by John szczepaniak, contributor to the popular ‘hardcoregaming101' blog, Egypt's gaming culture mainly surrounds bootlegs. The newer consoles like the PS3 are too costly for most people, and as a result the video game opiate of the masses remains the affordable PS2. In terms of games, soccer without a shadow of a doubt is the game of choice. Yet even then one can often gleam into a cyber café and find it deserted. The reality is that video games are a luxury many often cannot afford. Games are seen as good entertainment and distraction, but the chaotic day to day lives for most ordinary Egyptians leave little time or money to do anything else. Egypt is not alone in this however. The Middle East has one video game developing company. Timeline Interactive (TI) is the only company of its kind, based in Cairo, Egypt. The company was started back in 2005 by Mostafa Hafez, Mohamed Seif and Wessam Fathi. All three have had experience producing video games, and have collaborated with notable companies such as Epic Games and Immersion Games. “The challenges are quite real for those interested in developing games in the Middle-East,” said Ahmed Metwally, previous CEO of TI, to Interactive Age magazine. Metwally says the Middle East is “a region with few hardcore gamers, zero publishers, reluctant investors and no industry specific education program.” This of course is not defeat. The lack of a demand has meant that TI stands alone in the market, allowing them to foster a lucrative gaming culture. TI has released a game under the title CellFactor: Psychokinetic Wars which has received mixed to positive reviews. Perhaps the future of gaming in Egypt rests within mobile applications. Cell phone subscriptions have risen astronomically over the past decade in the Middle East. The latest generation of Smartphones often has Facebook-related videogame compatibility, and many iphone users in Egypt can be seen sneaking in a few hours a day in between their daily activities. BM
