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Gaming experts call for more investment in Arabic content, locally developed games
Tamatem gaming platform founder says gaming spending in the Arab world is eight times higher than elsewhere, even as Arabic content accounts for less than 1% of online content
- PUBLISHED: Mon 21 Sept 2026, 1:31 PM
Hussam Hammoue, founder of gaming company Tamatem, said gaming spend in the Arab world is eight times higher than anywhere else, even as Arabic-language content still makes up less than 1 per cent of all content available online, speaking during a dialogue session at the Congress of Arabic and Creative Industries.
Mariam Al Halami, director of the private education sector at the Abu Dhabi Department of Education and Knowledge, said the education sector's shift towards gaming came after the department faced challenges it could not solve through traditional methods.
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She noted that the success of games rests on clear psychological principles, including graduated levels, motivation to progress, and rewards, which prompted the department to study how these principles could be applied to reshape the traditional classroom and solve real educational challenges.
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The venture capital challenge
Susanna Pollack, President of Games for Change, said the industry's biggest challenge lies in funding, noting that investors typically back only projects that are "100 per cent guaranteed", while the gaming industry is inherently hit-driven, meaning a game can succeed or fail entirely.
As a result, local companies tend to produce smaller-scale games to limit risk rather than invest in ambitious projects, pushing many to localise ready-made foreign games instead of producing original content from scratch.
Asked why the Arab world has not replicated the success of countries such as South Korea or Turkey in exporting entertainment content, Pollack said the gaming industry is fundamentally similar worldwide in terms of story, appeal and music, and that even a small budget can achieve global reach.
She added that the Arab world's one true advantage lies in the richness of its own culture but said the region still needs to explore that culture more deeply in order to tell its story to the world more effectively.
Lessons from the Chinese model
Pollack pointed to China as an example, where foreign companies cannot publish content without government approval and a mandatory local partner.
She said the Arab market, by contrast, is fully open to foreign companies with no similar protections, meaning that as an Arabic content creator, she is not competing with other Arab creators but with the largest Chinese, American and global companies for the same Arab user.
Despite this challenge, Hammoue pointed to an example of success: a low-budget Arabic game called "Shawarma Queen", which reached number one in China after catching the attention of a local content creator.
The game's popularity drove Chinese users to seek out shawarma restaurants, prompting the Chinese embassy in Jordan to contact the game's developer to thank him for strengthening cultural ties between the two peoples.
The remarks came during a dialogue session titled "The Role of Digital Games and Interactive Learning Tools in Strengthening Arabic Language and Culture", part of the Congress of Arabic and Creative Industries held at Manarat Al Saadiyat in Abu Dhabi on September 21, 2026.
Emirati Journalist