A British ex-pat currently living in Dubai has penned an article that examines what it’s like to be a gamer in the United Arab Emirates.
Josh Brindley wrote the two-part piece for GamesLatest and began by outlining some generalities, such as how Dubai gamers seem to prefer single-player gaming over multiplayer, though the writer points out that this may be more of a factor of Xbox Live not being officially supported yet in the UAE. Sony’s PlayStation network, however, has been supported in the country since the PS3’s introduction.
UAE gamers also seem to prefer the PS3 over the Xbox 360 and sports games over shooters.
Brindley also details how easy it is to acquire banned games in the UAE:
Despite being officially banned, many games can be acquired over the counter fairly easily in the gray market because the gamers demand for it is high, and everybody’s willing to pay to play.
Many expats who’ve just moved into the country don’t know about the grey market games, so they aren’t be able to buy them.
He sums up:
Most of the differences are because gaming isn’t quite as popular as in the UK, but the market is growing rapidly so it won’t be long before most of the differences are resolved. If the UAE adopted some of the methods of distribution the UK uses, then I think the gaming market would grow faster.
Comments
Re: Foreigner Offers Look at Gaming in Dubai
i actually find this all kinda strange, i mean, i found my copy of Postal 2 in a radioshack in some Dubai mall back in '04. yet many such games (this one included?) are banned there..
interesting piece from the inside.
Re: Foreigner Offers Look at Gaming in Dubai
Something totally unrelated, but that I was researching earlier today (oddly enough)...The spelling of the word "gray." Most Americans use gray, Europe and elsewhere generally use grey, and even within this article it changes (first it says grey, then says gray). Interesting.
-Optimum est pati quod emendare non possis-It is best to endure what you cannot change-