Iran Computer and Video Games Foundation has launched an online game design school, in collaboration with Education Ministry, to motivate talented game developers and propel the sector.
During an event held on Thursday, the foundation unveiled the training school, Peivast.com reported.
According to Alireza Kazemi, a deputy minister at the event, the game design school will promote the students’ media literacy through videogames, help detect talented students in the field and combine education with videogames, making it a more productive learning procedure.
Also speaking at the inaugural event, Sadeq Pejman, managing director of the foundation, said the school is to be technically supported, supervised and regulated by the foundation, stressing that training professionals in game development fields is necessary.
With an outstanding position in the global media, gaming has become an inseparable part of life for people of any age, especially youngsters.
Pejman noted that gaming aficionados and experts should be trained to enlarge the share of Iran in the rapidly growing global industry.
“Due to the limiting consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, the school is to share educational material through the Education Ministry’s Shad application,” he said.
“Through the app, learners can interact with instructors and this makes the learning process more efficient.”
The official said over 40,000 learners have already joined the school’s channel in Shad, adding that the warm reception illustrates the interest and popularity of the field.
Pejman also said the school can expand if the gaming foundation outsources related tasks to prospective provincial branches.
“The foundation is ready to establish over 130 offices throughout the country to further develop the infrastructure of gaming sector. The move will also provide employment opportunities both in education and official positions,” he added.
Noting that games play a significant role in children’s lives, Pejman said if they are not properly intertwined with education, they might go out of control and pose a risk to children.
Mobile Game Sector
Officials believe that support for game developers benefits both the society and the government by creating jobs and opening recreational avenues, in addition to generating considerable revenues.
Iranian Android game sector’s net income reached 690 billion rials ($2.65 million) in the last fiscal year that ended on March 19, 2020, marking a 47% increase year-on-year, the annual report of Iran’s leading Android market Cafe Bazaar shows.
With more than 43 million users, Cafe Bazaar is Iran’s largest mobile app publisher that releases seasonal and annual reports on its website, Blog.cafebazaar.ir.
Based on the statistical report, more than six million purchases, including paid app downloads, in-app purchases and subscriptions, were conducted in the online market, indicating a 20% hike YOY.
The value of each transaction for game applications averaged 115,000 rials (44 cent). In addition, December 2019 and February 2020 registered the highest volume of transactions.
A total of 127,000 applications were published on Café Bazaar, 18,000 of which were mobile games.
The report’s diagrams showed that the total number of games published on the online service saw a 42% year-on-year fall. The number of game developer teams, however, seemed to increase by 32%, reaching 5,000.
Although only 30.2% of game developers are in Tehran, the city’s share of income reached 87.5%.
After Tehran, the provinces of Khorasan Razavi and Isfahan have the largest number of game developer teams with a respective share of 8.3% and 7.7%.
In terms of net income, Tehran is followed by Khorasan Razavi with 2.2% while developers in other provinces accounted for the remaining 10.3%.
Of the total number of 18,000 game apps, 36.6% were designed in Tehran, 10.6% in Khorasan Razavi and 9.6% in West Azarbaijan.
More Statistics
In the last fiscal year that ended in March, Café Bazaar attracted over 7 million new users, recording a 20% year-on-year growth in its install base.
The number of active gamers in Iran reached 29 million who downloaded and updated Android games over 670 million times, registering a 16% rise compared to a year before.
Strategic, family, recreational and action games respectively had the highest income growth rate during the year.
The data show that word puzzle, sports, adventure and educational games showed a sudden but short-term growth in February-March 2020.
Users rated mobile games over 30 million times. The highest rate was 4.64 for words and general information games.
In all business sectors, users’ input plays a pivotal role in enhancing consumer experience and product quality, and the Android sector is no different.
Just like every other app market, Cafe Bazaar encourages customer reviews on the apps offered by the platform.
Age Groups
Statistics released by Iran’s Digital Games Research Center confirm conventional expectations that a majority of gamers (36%) are teenagers between the ages of 12 and 19.
Teenagers are followed by children under the age of 12, constituting 31% of players. Those between the ages of 20 and 34 account for 26% of the gamers’ population.
The numbers turn surprisingly interesting as the age groups increase. Out of the 28 million gamers, 6% are between the ages of 35 and 59.
Finally, 1% of gamers, constituting 280,000 individuals who are 60 years or older, which reveal the widespread appeal of of gaming even among generations not strongly attached to the digital world, such as millennials. Overall, the average age of a gamer is 19 years.
