From Late Night Snacking To Snapping Millions

Investors may have overlooked Africa’s gaming industry, but Evan and Shaz Greenwood haven’t. They’ve found a lucrative digital sweet spot in Africa’s $310-million gaming market.

- Jay Caboz

If you thought computer games were all play and no pay – think again. Although, it takes a lot of sacrifice, just ask Evan and Shaz Greenwood, founders of Free Lives, who lived on instant noodles and steaks fried on a sandwich toaster as they built their digital gaming company. They made a game called Broforce and launched it in 2015. These days it’s worth more than $3.7 million – a gaming goldmine, they say.

“Broforce just keeps going. There is a lasting appeal. I think there is a community that’s driving it. Some of the people that play Broforce play it so much they keep evangelizing it to new people. It’s just at the top of their lists and they keep recommending it,” says Evan, founder and creative director of Free Lives.

It meant saying goodbye to penniless days sleeping on a couch, under flickering florescent lights, in a warehouse apartment in Muizenberg, near Cape Town. It has also meant hello to mansions on the winelands of Constantia; three-month workshops in Mauritius; and a full-time chef instead of noodles and burned steak.

“If left to my own devices I would never finish a game. It can always have more work done on it. It can always be better,” says Evan.

Behind closed doors and over the internet this little-known games industry has taken shape. If the names Broforce, Genital Jousting or Gorn don’t mean anything, they should if you like games. These quirky games have made Free Lives more money than most could make in several lifetimes behind a desk doing the bidding of others.

This is part of Africa’s $310-million gaming market, that is expected reach $642 million by 2021, according to the PwC report, Entertainment and media outlook: 2017-2021.