Mexico Means Money
Author of this post: Beth A. Dillon | About Blog Authors »
In line with the recommendation to independent game developers to chase Asian markets with strategies like micro-transactions in portable community-oriented games, there’s a new untapped audience on the rise. Mexico is known as a market caught up with piracy, but a recent report from Research and Markets Ltd. suggests that the game industry there could be worth $1 billion by 2010.
“There is a booming gamer population and despite problems with piracy, a substantial level of legitimate business,” says Phung Pham, lead analyst on the report.
So what exactly is this gamer population made up of? YUGS! Otherwise known as young unmarried gamers. In Mexico, it’s commonplace for young adults to remain with their parents until they get married. This means a lot of young people working and making money they don’t need to spend on daily necessities that instead goes towards fun stuff like video games. I’d take that!
About a decade ago, women usually got married at the age of 20 and men at 23. However, times are changing. According to the report, women are now married at the age of 25 and men at 28, which, sure enough, results in several added years of extra dinero. You’d think it’d be a great idea to save up while you have the chance, but hey, who can when there are three stellar next-gen consoles to choose from (or get all of)?
Enter Xibalba.
Independent game developers like Xibalba Studios are at the forefront of this growing opportunity with bi-lingual games. With low office space costs and such a large market, Mexico is surely a promising target for indie developers. I’m looking forward to seeing if anyone jumps on culturally specific game content to appeal to Mexico’s YUGs. What’s the micro-transaction game design model equivalent of the south? We have yet to see!
