When discussing the games industry, a ton of names will come to mind, but these names are often related to Japan, China, North America, or Europe. However, the games industry is much larger than that, with the Middle East having a long history with it as well. Recently, Game Rant spoke with Falafel Games Co-founder and CEO Vince Ghossoub about a myriad of topics, including the industry in the Middle East.

For those who are unaware, Falafel Games was founded in 2010 and has become known as a leading developer within the region. It has developed MMO games and mobile games, was the first in the region to offer cross-platform access on a game (web and iPhone), and was ranked as one of the Top 100 Innovators in the Middle East for 2017 and 2018. As such, it was interesting to hear Ghossoub's thoughts on the industry.

For the Middle East, Ghossoub describes it overall as a "bit better" compared to ten years ago, although "still under-indexing in terms of capabilities and/or performance on a global scale." More companies and communities have found success, and the industry itself is very diverse for content produced and content consumed. The relationship between the two, that is the consumer and producers of gaming products, seems very healthy as well. A lot of content can sometimes seem tailor-made for its audience, as Ghossoub describes:

You know, the Middle Eastern players--and this is quite the generalization--but in general, players in the Middle East have a certain behavior that is specific to them, have certain biases that are more specific to them. A lot of publishers and developers, they understand it and they know how to serve those behaviors or those intuitions.

Ghossoub also describes the largest market "in terms of dollar consumption and users" to be mobile. Falafel Games' founding was as a web game developer, but the studio was one of the first to move onto the mobile market. He describes the two sections of the industry as very different, meaning the studio had to adapt.

Specifically, Ghossoub said that web game development can be "segmented to a certain degree" while mobile is "one global arena of competition where everybody accesses games from a mobile or play store." In terms of Falafel Games' triumphs and challenges in the Middle East, Ghossoub had this to say,

Over the years, we've had the privilege and curse of somehow innovating. Being an innovator is good and bad, I guess. Specifically, we were the first to develop cross-platform on web and iOS. Back then, it was quite the innovation. We've had the first RPG drawn from Arab conquest history, very faithful actually to the high fidelity to actual historical records. We've had the first live-video multiplayer platform, which is something that is still being experimented upon everywhere. Some of these initiatives failed spectacularly, and some found success miraculously. I guess it's the story of almost any game studio.

However, as he mentions, Falafel Games' story is just one of many in Middle East game development. Although he describes narrative and story games as "lacking," there's a ton of games/developers that draw on and express Middle East culture, and many received high praise from Ghossoub. He describes Jawaker as a "great studio that works on card games that are drawn from the region," while highlighting Semaphore for its attempts at incorporating local content. He also added: "There are many studios that can be praised for properly culturizing despite the lack of narrative."

Overall, while our interview covered a lot of topics (more to come), it seems that Ghossoub was very hopeful for the future. His love for gaming was made abundantly clear time and again, and it seems he's interested in moving not just the Middle Eastern market forward, but gaming as a whole.