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UAE Gamers Want in on Multi-Billion-Dollar Industry

Geraint Bungay, CEO of Boss Bunny Games, speaks during an interview with AFP at his company's premises in Dubai. (AFP)
Geraint Bungay, CEO of Boss Bunny Games, speaks during an interview with AFP at his company's premises in Dubai. (AFP)
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UAE Gamers Want in on Multi-Billion-Dollar Industry

Geraint Bungay, CEO of Boss Bunny Games, speaks during an interview with AFP at his company's premises in Dubai. (AFP)
Geraint Bungay, CEO of Boss Bunny Games, speaks during an interview with AFP at his company's premises in Dubai. (AFP)

From a brand new facility in Dubai, young gamers are hosting virtual regional eSports competitions sponsored by global brands as they shoot to become major players in the multi-billion-dollar industry.

Indian expat Saad Khan said he realized there was "huge opportunity" in promoting eSports in the region four years ago, when he saw people crowding into rapidly sprouting cyber cafes in Dubai, one of the UAE's seven emirates.

That's when Khan, who has a strong background in technology, decided to found Gamers Hub Media Events (GHME) to host e-Sports tournaments in the Middle East and North Africa.

"We're here for the gamers, we are here for our sponsors, and we are here to give the best experience possible," said 45-year-old Khan, who is CEO of the company.

In an effort to diversify its oil-dependent economy and boost its soft power, the United Arab Emirates and its legion of young expats have in recent years jumped into a range of sectors, including sports and technology.

The global games and interactive media industry grew 12 percent to $139.9 billion last year, according to US-based data analytics company Nielsen.

Meanwhile in the Gulf, the gaming market is expected to reach $821 million this year, with the UAE and Saudi Arabia the biggest players, according to consulting firm Strategy&.

'Ecosystem forming'
"There's a huge sponsorship value that has increased... the number of gamers has increased, and I'm also seeing a lot of teams being formed, which was not happening before," said Khan, who declined to disclose GHME's profits.

The company has partnerships with Intel, Dell Alienware, Lenovo Legion and Omen by HP, and last year it landed a deal with German luxury automaker BMW, which sponsors gaming tournaments in the region.

And GHME is set to expand its reach further, opening offices in Spain, India, and South Africa.

For Ghazi Beydoun, a gaming enthusiast heading business development at GHME, the future of eSports in the Middle East is promising, with major talent emerging in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

"We have a lot of players here with a lot of talent that are lacking support, but this support is now coming," the 29-year-old Lebanese expat told AFP.

"Little by little, a gaming ecosystem is forming and will improve and grow."

Dubai-based company Boss Bunny Games is now part of that "ecosystem", with plans to launch what the UAE says is the first video game inspired by Gulf culture.

Set for release later this year, the game will feature Emirati characters from the popular local children's cartoon "Freej", which revolves around four old Emirati women in full traditional dress, living in modern-day Dubai.

Reaching 'global audiences'
"It's 100 percent a private initiative, but we do have massive support from the government," said Geraint Bungay, CEO of Boss Bunny Games.

The British expat, with 25 years' experience in the industry, said he co-founded the company in Dubai because of the emirate's thirst for technology, its international engineers and proximity to major game consumer Saudi Arabia.

"Saudi is the number five market in the world for games in terms of revenue, so it's absolutely a huge market," Bungay told AFP.

"A lot of people... don't realize the size of the games market in the region at all."

According to Robert Mogielnicki from the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, Gulf countries' appetite for eSports is part of a more general push for "home-grown industries" and "greater self-sufficiency".

"eSports and other gaming industries provide new platforms for Gulf Arab governments and companies to reach global audiences," he told AFP.

"This is about more than just entertaining young people; it has to do with depicting Gulf societies as thriving and creative hubs worthy of an expansive global audience."

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Technology

AI to Track Icebergs Adrift at Sea in Boon for Science

© Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
© Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
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AI to Track Icebergs Adrift at Sea in Boon for Science

© Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP
© Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP

British scientists said Thursday that a world-first AI tool to catalogue and track icebergs as they break apart into smaller chunks could fill a "major blind spot" in predicting climate change.

Icebergs release enormous volumes of freshwater when they melt on the open water, affecting global climate patterns and altering ocean currents and ecosystems, reported AFP.

But scientists have long struggled to keep track of these floating behemoths once they break into thousands of smaller chunks, their fate and impact on the climate largely lost to the seas.

To fill in the gap, the British Antarctic Survey has developed an AI system that automatically identifies and names individual icebergs at birth and tracks their sometimes decades-long journey to a watery grave.

Using satellite images, the tool captures the distinct shape of icebergs as they break off -- or calve -- from glaciers and ice sheets on land.

As they disintegrate over time, the machine performs a giant puzzle problem, linking the smaller "child" fragments back to the "parent" and creating detailed family trees never before possible at this scale.

It represents a huge improvement on existing methods, where scientists pore over satellite images to visually identify and track only the largest icebergs one by one.

The AI system, which was tested using satellite observations over Greenland, provides "vital new information" for scientists and improves predictions about the future climate, said the British Antarctic Survey.

Knowing where these giant slabs of freshwater were melting into the ocean was especially crucial with ice loss expected to increase in a warming world, it added.

"What's exciting is that this finally gives us the observations we've been missing," Ben Evans, a machine learning expert at the British Antarctic Survey, said in a statement.

"We've gone from tracking a few famous icebergs to building full family trees. For the first time, we can see where each fragment came from, where it goes and why that matters for the climate."

This use of AI could also be adapted to aid safe passage for navigators through treacherous polar regions littered by icebergs.

Iceberg calving is a natural process. But scientists say the rate at which they were being lost from Antarctica is increasing, probably because of human-induced climate change.

 

Technology

AMD Predicts Weaker First-Quarter Sales, Shares Plunge on Nvidia Comparisons

An AMD logo and a computer motherboard appear in this illustration created on August 25, 2025. (Reuters)
An AMD logo and a computer motherboard appear in this illustration created on August 25, 2025. (Reuters)
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AMD Predicts Weaker First-Quarter Sales, Shares Plunge on Nvidia Comparisons

An AMD logo and a computer motherboard appear in this illustration created on August 25, 2025. (Reuters)
An AMD logo and a computer motherboard appear in this illustration created on August 25, 2025. (Reuters)

Advanced Micro Devices on Tuesday forecast a slight decline in quarterly revenue, raising concerns about whether it ​can effectively challenge Nvidia in the booming AI market and sending its shares tumbling 8% in after-hours trade.

The lackluster prediction comes despite an unexpected boost from sales of certain artificial intelligence chips to China, which began in the last quarter after the Trump administration approved a license for orders that AMD received in early 2025.

And without those sales to China which generated $390 million, AMD's data-center segment would have missed estimates for the fourth quarter.

AMD said it expects revenue of about $9.8 billion this quarter, plus or minus $300 million. That's down from $10.27 billion in the fourth-quarter which was up 34% year-on-year and ahead of LSEG ‌estimates for $9.67 billion.

PALES ‌NEXT TO NVIDIA

Though AMD is seen as one of the ‌few ⁠contenders ​that can seriously ‌challenge Nvidia, investors noted the stark contrast between the two companies' performances. AMD expects an adjusted gross margin of 55% this quarter. Nvidia has said it expects adjusted gross margin in the mid-70% range during its fiscal 2027.

"The expectations for large blowout quarters for AI-related hardware companies have skewed what the market is looking for," said Bob O'Donnell, president of TECHnalysis Research.

The forecast for the current first quarter includes $100 million from sales to China, where the situation remains "dynamic," AMD CEO Lisa Su said on a conference call with investors.

The US government ⁠has placed restrictions on the exports of advanced chips to China, but AMD received licenses to sell modified versions of its MI300 series ‌of AI chips there. Its MI308 chip competes with Nvidia's H20 ‍chip in China.

OPENAI SALES

AMD has accelerated its ‍product launches and is moving into selling full AI systems to better compete against Nvidia, which now ‍provides "rack-scale" systems that combine GPUs, CPUs and networking gear.

Last year, it entered into a multi-year deal to supply AI chips to ChatGPT-owner OpenAI, which would bring in tens of billions of dollars in annual revenue and give the startup the option to buy up to roughly 10% of the chipmaker.

Su reiterated on Tuesday that the company ​expects sales of a new flagship AI server to OpenAI and others to rise rapidly in the second half of this year, saying a global memory-chip crunch will not ⁠slow its plans.

"I do not believe that we will be supply-limited in terms of the ramp that we put in place," Su said.

BEYOND OPENAI

As Big Tech and governments across the globe double down on investing in AI hardware, shares in Santa Clara, California-based AMD have doubled since the start of 2025, outperforming a 60% bump in the broader chip index.

But analysts remain concerned that AMD's success remains tied to a handful of customers that rivals such as Nvidia could try to poach. Reuters reported this week that Nvidia made a $20 billion move to hire most of chip startup Groq's founders after OpenAI held chip supply discussions with the startup.

"Growth appears concentrated in large deployments and specific regions, and China shipments are significant enough to influence a quarter," said eMarketer analyst Gadjo Sevilla.

Revenue in AMD's key data-center segment grew 39% to $5.38 billion in the ‌fourth quarter. But excluding sales of the MI308, which is a data-center chip, that revenue would have been $4.99 billion, below estimates of $5.07 billion.

Technology

Switch 2 Sales Boost Nintendo Results but Chip Shortage Looms

This photo taken on November 4, 2025 shows a woman taking photos of a Super Mario figure at the Nintendo Tokyo store in Tokyo. (AFP)
This photo taken on November 4, 2025 shows a woman taking photos of a Super Mario figure at the Nintendo Tokyo store in Tokyo. (AFP)
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Switch 2 Sales Boost Nintendo Results but Chip Shortage Looms

This photo taken on November 4, 2025 shows a woman taking photos of a Super Mario figure at the Nintendo Tokyo store in Tokyo. (AFP)
This photo taken on November 4, 2025 shows a woman taking photos of a Super Mario figure at the Nintendo Tokyo store in Tokyo. (AFP)

The runaway success of the Switch 2 console drove up Nintendo's net profit by more than 50 percent in the nine months to December, the Japanese video game giant said Tuesday.

But a global memory chip shortage, created by frenzied demand for artificial intelligence hardware, could push up manufacturing costs.

The Switch 2 became the world's fastest-selling games console after launching to a fan frenzy last summer.

It is the successor to the original Switch, which soared in popularity during the pandemic when games such as "Animal Crossing" struck a chord during long lockdowns.

Both are hybrid devices that can be connected to a TV or used on-the-go.

In April-December, net profit jumped 51.3 percent year-on-year to 358.9 billion yen ($2.3 billion), and revenue nearly doubled on-year to 1.9 trillion yen, Nintendo said.

But the firm kept its annual unit sales target for the Switch 2 steady at 19 million, and also held its full-year net profit forecast of 350 billion yen.

"Nintendo Switch 2 got off to a good start following its launch on June 5 and unit sales continued to grow through the holiday season," the company said.

Nearly 17.4 million Switch 2 devices were sold in the nine-month period, it added.

"Maintaining momentum is certainly a big focus for Nintendo," Krysta Yang of the Nintendo-focused Kit and Krysta Podcast told AFP.

A lack of heavy-hitting first-party new games for the Switch 2 in coming months risks hindering growth, although third-party titles such as "Resident Evil Requiem" should help fill the gap, she said.

Nintendo said Tuesday it planned to release "Mario Tennis Fever" this month and "Pokemon Pokopia" in March.

While the firm is diversifying into hit movies and theme parks, consoles remain the core of its business.

The Switch 1 has now sold 155.37 million units -- overtaking the Nintendo DS console to be its best-selling hardware of all time.

But soaring prices for memory chips, used in gaming consoles as well as phones, laptops and other electronics, will likely be a headwind for the company.

Their prices have been pushed up as chipmakers focus on producing the advanced memory chips in huge demand to power AI data centers.

"Nintendo and other console manufacturers are publicly keeping quiet about the impact of the shortage," gaming industry consultant Serkan Toto told AFP.

But "users can forget the past when consoles always became cheaper in tandem with component costs falling over time", with price hikes potentially on the way in 2026, he said.

Yang said she thought a price increase for the Switch 2 "is not out of the question" but added that Nintendo "would likely exhaust all other options" before doing so.