Crown Prince addresses developers, industry experts at gaming summit

AMMAN — HRH Crown Prince Hussein on Sunday addressed the importance of gaming and its influence on the youth of Jordan.

“The industry of gaming is rapidly growing and we realise its importance to the youth in Jordan and elsewhere in the world,” Prince Hussein said.

The Crown Prince's remarks were made during a session that took place on the second day of the eighth Jordan Gaming Summit, under the title “Technology at its Best”, which was held at the Royal Tank Museum and organised by the King Abdullah II Fund for Development (KAFD).

Prince Hussein added that he was hopeful that the summit “will be an important opportunity for youth to learn more about the industry, to benefit their passion and creativity by stimulating the proper environment to increase their participation”.

The two-day summit is part of activities organised by the Jordan Gaming Lab in cooperation with the Jordan Union of Electronic Game Developers.

The first day’s sessions tackled local, regional and international updates in the digital gaming industry, in the presence of international and local experts.

Sunday’s sessions also included participants from Jordanian, Arab and international companies as well as independent developers in the electronic gaming industry.

The Kingdom’s gaming industry includes 16 companies, which employ more than 500 workers, according to the KAFD.

“The idea is to provide opportunities for Jordanian game developers to showcase their games to those interested in the industry,” Chairman of the KAFD’s Board of Trustees Imad Fakhoury, told around 80 participants.

The summit provides an opportunity for young Jordanian developers and participants to exchange ideas with industry leaders and experts, “which should reflect favourably on their skills”, Fakhouri added.

On the sidelines of the summit, the KADF and Steel Media signed an agreement to include an annual Pocket Gamer summit in Jordan which should “provide a big boost for Jordan to become a hub to develop and manufacture digital games,” said Saeb Alhasam, fund director at KADF.

Pocket Gamer is a video game website that focuses on handheld video games. The site launched in 2005 and is published and owned by Steel Media Limited, according to Wikipedia.

Since 2011, the KAFD has been annually organising the summit in Amman, according to the organisers, who added that they were looking forward to having the future summit for Pocket Gamer.

“We also launched a special fund to support Jordanian youth in the manufacturing of digital gaming,” Alhasam told The Jordan Times.

Alhasam added that youth lack experience in the digital marketing of their products and winning consumer’s trust, which is why “we will develop a training manual to empower Jordanians to develop the required skills to win the trust of consumers”. 

The KAFD focuses on investing in human resources though providing necessary support to empower youth to contribute to the development of the country's future and prepare them for the labour market in line with His Majesty's reform vision, according to KAFD’s website.