The African leg of the ID@Xbox Discovery Days is upon us and with it the chance for developers across the length and breath of the continent to learn about the Xbox eco-system and what it takes to bring their projects to the Microsoft suite of gaming platforms.

The event will bring experts to talk about Xbox, Game Pass, xCloud, ID@Xbox, Azure and more! However, before the session the ID@Xbox team tackled a few questions to shed some light on their long term ambitions for gaming in Africa.

Why is now the right time to host a Discovery Days event aimed at the region?

While any time would be a great time, we’ve seen some great progress in game development in Africa over the past few years and we’re very excited to welcome new developers from the region to our platform, and to hear about what kind of great games are being worked on.

How does this event fit into Microsoft’s overall long term strategy to support gaming in Africa? Essentially an outline of a pipeline from discovery to launch and beyond would be great.

The first step is for us to build awareness amongst African developers about the opportunities on our platforms and services, including Xbox, Windows Store and Game Pass. We then would like to get developers who are at the right stage to bring their games to our platforms onboarded into the ID@Xbox program so we can start providing them with any support they might need as they progress through development and porting. Finally, when they’re ready to launch, we’d like to make them aware of the opportunities we can provide to help amplify their marketing activity with our customers.

Speaking of which, is this event a one size fits all for the entire continent or will there be segments that take into account the financial and infrastructural discrepancy experienced by creators in Africa and how to begin addressing those and building a pipeline to support them?

The event is one size fits all in that we are providing a high level introduction to gaming on Xbox, Windows Store and Game Pass, and opportunities that come from working with ID@Xbox. But this is only a first step! Developers who are at the stage where they would like to start working with us can join the ID@Xbox program and participate in future events or meetings with the ID team that can be more closely tailored to their needs and opportunities.

Finally, going back to the first question, what would be viewed as a success for ID@Xbox in Africa over the next year, 5 and 10 years?

We would absolutely love to see a number of games from Africa brought to Xbox, Windows Store and Game Pass, and we’d love to see them be successful. We don’t have specific target metrics in mind, but we would like to be able to identify talented developers and do everything we can to help them succeed. If would be wonderful if we could see a steady stream of games from Africa start to be published on Xbox over the next several years, hopefully leading to a number of success stories.

Xbox Discovery Day: Africa Edition

Date and Time of the Event:

Friday 10th, September, 2021

12pm – 1.30pm British Summer Time / Western Africa Time

1pm – 2.30pm Central Africa Time (BST/WAT +1)

2pm – 3.30pm Eastern Africa Time (BST/WAT +2)

If you are a PC or Console Game Developer interested in bringing your title to the global audience via Xbox, this is the seminar to join. To join the session, visit this Teams link.