Gaming is not a game - it is big business and rAge, described as the country's biggest gaming expo, is a mecca for exhibitors and gamers alike. This year's rAge will take place from 4-6 October 2013, at the Coca-Cola Dome in Johannesburg.
In 2011, South African consumers spent R1.3bn on games, gaming accessories, PCs, peripherals, PC hardware and the 2.9m console and handheld games they bought.
Moreover, when gamers around the world bought the latest instalment in the Call of Duty franchise, they helped the game knock Hollywood's record-breakers out of the park. Call of Duty reached the landmark of US $1bn in sales in just 15 days - beating blockbuster film Avatar.
The average gamer is not a teenager with a PlayStation controller in his back pocket. According to worldwide statistics, the average gamer is 30 years old and has been gaming for 12 years. He or she has children, serious jobs and shop for cornflakes at the local Pick n Pay, with almost a third of them being women. However, they also have a penchant for MMOGS (massively multiplayer online games), virtual worlds and strategic games.
In South Africa, consumers are increasingly using their smartphones to get a fix of their favourite games on the move. In fact, mobile gaming represents a healthy 20% of the gaming market share (right behind consoles and handheld games at 60%).
As bandwidth increases and Internet connectivity becomes cheaper, online gaming is steadily growing.
Right now, there are 240,806 gamers playing DOTA2 online worldwide. There are 137 local teams registered to play in Telkom's Do Gaming DOTA2 online league and there are thousands more playing online every day in League of Legends, Battlefield 3, StarCraft II and FIFA 2013 internationally.
Not surprising then that South African gamers are expected to spend almost R1.4bn on their hobby this year.
Last year's expo saw over 29,000 gaming fanatics through its doors (29% up on 2011 and 46% more than in 2010). Almost 2,600 of them packed sleeping bags, so they could catch a few z's during the 53-hour long NAG LAN @ rAge event, a continuous gaming session on a local area network housed within the Coca-Cola Dome. It is the largest annual LAN in the southern hemisphere.
If its Facebook page is anything to go by, the gaming community is positively fizzing with anticipation. For more information, go to www.rageexpo.co.za.
