Join us while we sit down with pioneers from the mobile gaming industry in the UAE to understand the way forward and what it means for hardware manufacturers, developers and consumers alike.
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00:00Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for joining today's mobile webinar on mobile gaming.
00:04I'm your host, Kevin Sebastian, and your moderator, and with us we have a esteemed panel of guests
00:09across the gaming industry. We have Senior Product Manager of Middle East and Africa,
00:15Bashar Khayyar, accounting creator and one of the bigger game streamers in the region,
00:19and CEO of local mobile game developer, Dynabytes, who are currently working on their mobile AR game
00:25that's based in Dubai. So with the pandemic that has come across in this extraordinary year,
00:31this has been a very extraordinary year in terms of how the pandemic has captured the world's
00:36attention. One of the main segments that did not, however, get affected was gaming, and in fact it
00:43was one that, being very specific to gaming, it was mobile gaming. Now I'm going to be answering
00:49this question too, and this is something that Bashar as well can also very much answer with me.
00:55Are mobile gamers considered gamers? And there's a long-running joke in the gaming industry where
01:01the people who are in the console and PC gaming markets inherently say that mobile gamers are
01:06very casual people who don't play games as seriously as the others. While that might be true,
01:12the mobile gaming market is arguably one of the biggest, if not the biggest, gaming markets
01:17in the entire world. So with that said, I'm going to ask my first question to Bashar. Thank you for
01:22being here, first of all. My first question to you is, you're a content creator. Now with the pandemic,
01:29most of us were sitting at home. If we were not streaming and if we're not making content,
01:33we were actually playing games, but you were doing both. So how did your audience improve
01:39this year, especially because you were creating way more content than you used to do that
01:42previously last year? Hi, Kevin. So I have been in YouTube for about, let's say, 11 years,
01:52like from 2009. I have been making videos on YouTube, and every year we can see that
02:00people show more, like many people are uploading videos about gaming on
02:07YouTube. Let's say from 10 years, when you want to search anything about gaming
02:14on YouTube, you will only see two games, Call of Duty and FIFA. That's it.
02:20Year after year, we can see more gaming, more gaming on YouTube, but when
02:29mobile gaming become more popular and companies are making now really good
02:36gaming on phones, like really good games, like let's say PUBG, Call of Duty and stuff,
02:42not only some minor games like Candy Crush and that stuff. So when companies are now making,
02:51now that companies are showing more interest on mobile gaming, it's a full, like
03:00it brought so many people into YouTube. It brought so many views, so many stuff. Now we have
03:05full YouTube channels that only make videos about mobile gaming, and now we can see it's
03:16maybe the biggest views on YouTube. It's all about mobile gaming. So for me, now this year during
03:25the pandemic, I know it was really hard for so many people. So many people lost their job because
03:31of that. But for the YouTubers, it was the complete opposite. They were sitting home making
03:37videos. So yeah, it was a really good year for us YouTubers and people who make content at home
03:48because we already work at home. We don't need like, that's what we already do. So yeah.
03:54Yeah, you are definitely the envy of a lot of people because your main job is to play
03:58visual games and entertain crowds, right? But obviously that's not a very easy thing to do
04:02because you're doing a lot of this every day and you always have to stay on point
04:06and stay on top of the trends and get on top of the channels and make sure that your content is
04:10seen by a lot of people. With that said, let's just get a bit into the numbers here because
04:16for everyone involved here, because Newzoo, the gaming analytics company,
04:19estimates by the end of 2020, the mobile game revenue will hit about 76.7 billion dollars,
04:26a 12% increase in 2019. And to put that in perspective, the box office, this is a global
04:32box office here for all of the movie industry, that was 42.5 billion. So by the end of this year,
04:38especially because a lot of movies have not been screened out on time and there were delays,
04:42the mobile gaming industry is now worth more than the global box office. So that's a very huge
04:48market to tap into. And in fact, which actually leads on to my next topic, which is the mobile
04:53gaming industry and the mobile gaming events industry. And Tarek, this is where you're the
04:58star in this very particular segment, because we basically saw that OPPO hosted a FIFA gaming
05:07tournament in the Emirates across August and September. And we saw well over 1,600 people
05:14play this and they got the chance to play with their favorite YouTubers as well. So tell us,
05:19how did OPPO envision doing this, especially during a pandemic and a very tough situation?
05:25Hi Kevin, as a start. Hi everyone, thanks for having me. So as you said, it was quite a very
05:30tough time for everyone in the midst of the pandemic. And this was basically the first
05:37gaming event. And this actually shows the commitment of OPPO and how it wants to reach
05:44the local community. Within the industry, we all know the challenges that OPPO is going through,
05:52but OPPO values in bringing the latest devices and innovations. So to add to your question,
06:04basically human research is in the heart of our product development. From the research that was
06:10done, we see a great uptake on the gaming and becoming a very essential pillar in the world of smartphones.
06:21Yeah, and in fact, it's also been one of the core pillars of what OPPO have been doing to
06:26create devices that serve the all-rounding public, which is pretty nice to see.
06:30But in terms of gaming adoption rates, especially here in the UAE and in the greater Middle East
06:35and Saudi Arabia, it's a massive market here. We all know this. And one particular untapped market,
06:41which is slowly growing in popularity, is augmented reality, AR games in fact. And the ability for our
06:46phones to now use AR well within the ecosystem is something that a lot of developers are going into,
06:52which is my next question now goes to Mr. Haider Alani, our CEO of Dynabytes. Thank you for having,
06:57thank you for being here. Please tell us a bit about the game you're developing, because as
07:02someone who grew up in Dubai, it's very interesting to see a game being developed
07:06here and that it was an AR game. So just tell us a bit more about what you're developing and
07:10what's the process around that. Thank you for having me here. Actually, we are in the midst
07:17of launching Phantasma in a few weeks. It's an immersive AR GPS multiplayer adventure game.
07:24The purpose of the game is to catch these Phantasmas using the game assets like the baits,
07:29boosters, and bottles. And we are focusing the game only in Dubai and have a very carefully
07:36allocated locations. Those locations are handpicked, so the locations are not randomly generated,
07:44but our characters are. So when you made this whole scene, like you obviously
07:51made this game with the idea of using the camera and integrating that as a shooter-based game,
07:57but how does the implementation go? Because you clearly are looking at a game that takes in a lot
08:03of data in real time and it could not have been that easy. So how did you do all of that in terms
08:10of developing something over here? It wasn't easy at all, especially you have to test all mobiles and
08:17all kinds of games and it is tough to get such devices that can comply with everything,
08:31especially AR. It's a new technology which we are like, I don't know how to say it, but
08:41the changing of hardware is always good news. It means the game can perform better and look
08:47better too. Especially with AR, we rely on good quality cameras and high-performance processor,
08:53a long-lasting battery life. These are the fatal things. What we notice is that the better
08:58configuration of the device, the higher its price. But thanks to OPPO, good technology and good
09:04mobile gaming experience are available for the masses. Now, however, it is the developer side,
09:12it's difficult because we have to test the game on all kinds of devices and hardwares.
09:18So that makes our life difficult. But for the masses, it's definitely better with such devices.
09:27Considering all things, OPPO has always been at the forefront of engineering and making
09:32great devices for everyone. In 2020, OPPO managed to release two great phones, Find X2 Pro
09:39and the Reno 4 Pro 5G, the one which I'm using actively for gaming right now because it's amazing
09:45for a very popular game called Mobile Legends. And in fact, a very recently released game from Riot
09:51called Wild Rift. And it's basically a phone that I would like to use to play games. And I don't
09:58have to worry about how long I can use the phone for because the battery life is quite good. And
10:02you can charge your phone very quickly. But my question now shifts back to Bashar. We all use
10:07our phones for social media content, but you more so because you're not just gaming on your phone,
10:12you're actually doing a lot of content creation. You're making Instagram stories. I know you're
10:16all over the social media piece as well. So we both have played games and we both have seen
10:23games evolve. We started doing mobile gaming from what, Farmville, Candy Crush, to all of these
10:28free-to-play games. And now we have developers like Tencent making these full-fledged games
10:33and free-to-play games, in fact, like PUBG and Call of Duty Mobile.
10:37But where do you think the experience needs to become better, for example?
10:44Right now, we already have the good hardware. We already have phones
10:57that show one at 20 hertz. We already have good battery life. We already have 5G thanks to OPPO.
11:14So we already have all of that. We already have the good hardware. And me, as a console player,
11:19as a person who played on devices like PlayStation, I used to play with 60 hertz.
11:25So now seeing that mobile phone have one at 20 hertz was mind-blowing. I did not expect that at
11:32all. So what I think that we need to make the experience better is from the gaming companies.
11:38We need them to make games that are not only free-to-play, because now at the moment,
11:45all the gaming companies are making games that are free-to-play. And to be honest,
11:50their main goal is for people to buy stuff in the game and to make more money. We need to see
11:59games like we see on PC, on PlayStation, like a game that I'm willing to pay $20, $30, but
12:08it's really a good game. A game that, I don't need to use the console anymore. I can just
12:13buy games on phone and play it on phone. So what I really need that gaming company to
12:18stop the free-to-play stuff, still make it, of course, many people are having fun with that,
12:24but to start also taking gaming on mobile more seriously, yeah.
12:35Yeah, absolutely. And it's an interesting point you make because one of the things I recently read
12:39out, and this was just yesterday in fact, how Xbox is basically starting something called the
12:44Project X Cloud, where they're going to start doing cloud gaming, which can basically use your
12:48mobile GPU and CPU to run graphics from the console. So you're basically playing cloud-based
12:53games on your phone and you're using the same Xbox interface, which means two things. One,
12:58you need to have a phone that can handle the output. And the second thing being, you need to
13:02have a strong bandwidth and you have to have 5G connection, which now comes to my next conversation
13:07comes to Tariq, because again, you guys have had a massive win this year with the OPPO,
13:11Reno4 Pro 5G, and making one of the more affordable 5G devices that people like us can
13:17get on their hands. And you had a very interesting product showcase as well at the OPPO InnoDay 2021,
13:24where we saw something on the likes of an extendable screen and augmented reality focus,
13:30which it has to be seen to be believed. And if anyone in the audience wants to know what I'm
13:34talking about, you can check them out at OPPO's InnoDay stories, and you can see that they had
13:38some excellent hardware showcases. But that's the question I'm going to be asking you, Tariq,
13:43now that we have a lot of new technologies coming in. Graphic cards are getting, at least in the
13:48mobile space, are getting smaller. CPUs are getting better. Where does OPPO will see that
13:53shift now in terms of the hardware showcase? Okay, so like you said, it was a good year by
14:00bringing great phones to address the needs like the OPPO Reno4 Pro 5G, and also the OPPO Find 5G.
14:09One of the things you can hear on both devices is...
14:23We seem to have, Tariq seems to have caught up, but he'll be back, and we'll just come back to
14:27that again. So now we'll be moving on to, we're still on the topic of hardware and software,
14:32and my question now is to you, Haider. We are talking about the specifics of developing an
14:37AR game, because now OPPO have developed technologies to make augmented reality much
14:40more easier. Will this be able to help developers? Because I do know for a fact that the
14:46development process of developing an AR game is very camera dependent, but when they have the AR
14:51engine already pre-built into your phone, would that make your life easier? Of course, as I said
14:59earlier, technology advancement is great. AR is evolving over the year. It's getting better.
15:07We saw that gap in the market, that's why we focus on AR, and thanks to technology makes things
15:14happen, that especially with the new phones, that it makes it easier and better, and as I said
15:23before, also that OPPO device, it has like really great camera and augmented reality, which enables
15:29us to develop more and makes it even better, and although we have to test again and again, and this
15:38is like, it's really getting so fast, which sometimes you can't catch up with.
15:47Absolutely, and now we have Tarek back. Tarek, again the question was still on hardware and
15:52software as well. Yeah, so the question was still on hardware and software, so basically
15:56I have to ask as well, because this is a very interesting question that I get a lot as well,
16:02because OPPO still offer premium features on a smartphone, but they still keep the price point
16:07well within the affordability of people, because now that you have phones costing more than a
16:12sofa and from IKEA, it's insane, right? But a 5G phone from Renov4, like a Renov4 Pro 5G
16:18still remains affordable, still remains a phone that a college kid can come and get, and they can
16:23still get the same features playing with any top tier smartphone. So how does that process go about
16:28developing that phone? Okay, so exactly like we said before, the core development of our devices
16:35starts with the consumer research, so we really focus on the consumer needs, the actual needs
16:40that we need for their experiences. So for example, when it comes to gaming, we've seen
16:46some of the pain points on the exact needs that they require within their devices, and then the
16:52result of this was Renov4 Pro 5G or the Find X2 Pro 5G, and if I give you a quick example,
16:59is that one of the key elements that builds a good gaming device, like in these devices,
17:04if you look at the Renov4 Pro 5G, for example, it starts with Apple leading charging technology,
17:11we have the Superbook 2.0, imagine charging the phone from 0 to 100 in 36 minutes,
17:17or if you charge it five minutes, it'll give you four hours of playback of YouTube,
17:22you know, then punch hole beautiful AMOLED screen that comes with 90 hertz refresh rate
17:30while it's on the Find X2 Pro, it's actually 120, and then all these devices have to be
17:36powered up, like Bashar and Haider were saying, with the latest Qualcomm
17:44Snapdragon 765G, for example, on the Renov4 Pro, and 865 on the Find Pro 5G.
17:53That is when combining all this very important matter is not only the hardware, but also how you
17:59combine the software to make it work.
18:06We apologize for the spotty connections there. Bashar, we're going to be moving to you now,
18:11because you were just talking about the hardware as well. You've obviously seen that OPPO have
18:17pulled off amazing gaming events, and that too in the middle of a pandemic, but not just as a
18:21content creator, but even as a gamer, personally as a gamer as well, like I want to see a lot more
18:24from gaming here, but what do you want to see from OPPO specifically?
18:31Yeah, okay, so OPPO already made good hardware,
18:40and they already made it within affordable price, so what I want them to do locally here
18:52that if they can show, if they can make more, let's say, esports, a more esports
19:01tournament locally here in the UAE, or maybe around the Middle East, because I'm not sure
19:09if this information is correct or not, but I think that mobile gamers here in the Middle East
19:17are more than, let's say, Europe or USA, so people here in the Middle East play more on
19:25mobile more than console and PC and stuff, so if they make more esports tournaments,
19:32more events like the one they did in the Mall of the Emirates, that will really make these
19:38mobile gamers happy, and it will also make, let's say, console players and PC players see
19:51that mobile gaming is not what it used to be before, it's not like mobile gamers are not
19:57real gamers, it will show that no, we have esports tournaments, we have events just like you guys.
20:03So, Tarek, the spotlight's on you again, and yeah, no worries, but yeah, like you heard, Bashar,
20:11like right now gamers are starving for more gaming development-focused events, and Oppo's
20:17the company, I'm pretty sure can fairly do that very easily, but before we wrap up this, before
20:22the session, I just wanted to talk about the extendable screen, because that was pretty cool
20:27technology, and I felt that that's something that definitely a gamer is going to take a huge
20:30advantage of. Yes, exactly, so this actually was quite a big news for us, I think for the gamers,
20:37and also for the community, for the developers, you know, with our latest Oppo Reno Day, we've
20:42announced a rollable AMOLED display smartphone, so this really changes the way we used to play
20:50games, because from a normal smartphone screen phone, you can roll it up and have almost a 7.2
20:56inch screen to play with your game, so this really opens the creativity for the developer
21:01and the content creator, really adapt to the new hardware that's going to be available.
21:07In addition to the rollable AMOLED display, we also announced the Oppo AR Glass 2021,
21:13which adds to your super-store line to either phone. This changes the whole gaming spectrum,
21:20from wearing AR glasses, to imagine playing a game on a 90-inch screen from a few meters
21:26far away. Also, we believe that currently we're in the middle of the evolution of the hardware,
21:32we're getting really amazing hardware, top-notch hardware, like the Oppo Reno 4,
21:36Oppo Reno 5G, great processors, screens, amazing display, but we see, we expect that we're going
21:42to see a revolution coming soon when it comes to the hardware, that will give a whole wide
21:48spectrum of creativity for the content creators and developers as well. And to add also to
21:56your point, Oppo also announced $7.6 billion of investment in R&D, really
22:04deep in the latest innovation, latest trends, because the Oppo goal is to build the latest
22:12technology to make our consumer lives easier. That's why, back to your point,
22:17we're bringing all of the latest innovations, very accessible points like 5G, Reno 4, 5G,
22:23to make it accessible to a wider segment of consumers. Gotcha. And we actually do have a
22:30few audience questions, and just before we wrap up the session, a question to Tariq,
22:34because these are very Oppo-focused questions. Can we expect a gaming-focused phone from Oppo
22:40in the near future? So that's a good question, and like we said, we are always getting a lot of,
22:46making a lot of research, and making sure to address these points. For example, in the latest
22:51Reno 4, 5G, in addition to the hardware, we've developed something on the phone called the
22:57Gaming Temple, which actually collects all the games within this app, called the Game Center,
23:03which makes it easy to find the games. It puts you in a gamer mode, where it gives you the
23:08possibility to control your notifications and incoming calls. And also, the phone is
23:16built with the use of AI, which uses its resources to give the game a hardware boost
23:23and the best experience. We are always going to make sure that there's going to be great
23:27innovations from the hardware and the software coming to you. Okay, we have another question,
23:32actually, based on your point just now. Would gaming be one of your main pillars that Oppo
23:38will always be focusing on? Gaming is definitely a very focused area for Oppo. Across all our
23:44devices, it's going to be the main focus, in addition, of course, with many other pillars
23:49within the smartphone. Because we all know now, a smartphone is not only one thing, it's many things,
23:54from gaming, to imaging, to business, to a whole new creativity. Even now it's
24:04studying. But gaming is quite a very important pillar, and we're always going to be
24:09pushing a lot of focus and bringing new innovation to the next devices.
24:14Sweet. And the battery life on Oppo. So, basically, we have a question about battery
24:20life on Oppo devices. And I can actually add in another question from mine as well, because
24:25you guys have made a 65-watt charger this year. And it's pretty insane, though, because you can
24:31now basically charge your phone in under 20 minutes completely, and we don't have to worry
24:35about battery being a problem here. But the question being, what about the current battery
24:41life? As soon as you finish charging it, is it good for gaming? Does the consumer have to worry about it?
24:47Sorry, the question is the current battery life? No, no. So, I said that,
24:53is the battery life good? We all know that Oppo has always had great charging,
24:58but the question is, how is the battery life on right now on current Oppo devices?
25:03For example, the OPPO Reno4 Pro 5G, we have a 4000 mAh battery, which is more than enough,
25:09actually, to last you all through the day. In addition to that, it comes with a 65-watt, which
25:14charges it in a full charge in 36 minutes. In addition to that, like you said in the beginning,
25:20there's a lot of software and AI features within the phone that helps you to consume and to moderate
25:27the power usage. For example, we have a superpower, we have a power-saving mode,
25:32we have a super night power-saving mode. For example, the super night power-saving mode,
25:37it only uses 2% over 8 hours of charge. So, there's a lot of AI and development on also
25:45on how the phone utilizes the power for the user of the phone.
25:51Understood. And we have one of our last questions before we wrap up the session.
25:55This question is to you, Haider. Basically, the question is, why did you create a game
26:01based in the UAE of all places? Well, we don't have many UAE and
26:07Middle East-based games. Hence, we wanted to test the market with Phantasma. It will be
26:17launched in a few weeks, Inshallah. The game is, since it's a geolocation game,
26:26we need to handpick the locations to avoid any safety hazards or something like it would be.
26:34We do concern about the gamers' safety. So, that's why we started with Dubai.
26:40And Inshallah, we will expand afterwards. So, let's see the success, Inshallah, and then we
26:48will move on. We have another question for you, Tariq, because we're getting a lot of
26:54OPPO-based questions. Why should someone buy an OPPO phone over the competition right now? And
26:59I'm sure competition is quite fierce. OPPO mission and OPPO goal is to bring the latest
27:06technology to make our consumers' lives easier, and most importantly, is to make it accessible
27:11at different price points. And the proof of this was bringing 5G in different price points. And we're
27:16still eager and pushing that we're going to expand the 5G even to more price points. In addition to
27:22that, we're always very close to our consumer, making the research, having these calls to try
27:29to really understand the core needs so we bring what is really required in the best reliable form
27:34and in the best possible pricing form. Okay, we have a question for Bashar from the audience.
27:43Bashar, I also want to know about this as well. What are your current favorite games
27:49you're playing right now? So, that question is for games on mobile or gaming in general?
27:59All gaming, it's all gaming. Okay, so I'll have two games right now, one on mobile, one on console.
28:06So, as you know, my favorite game of all time is always Call of Duty. So, the new games, Call of Duty,
28:13Black Ops Cold War, which is everywhere, and also at the same time I play Call of Duty, Call of Duty
28:18mobile on the phone. So, yeah, Call of Duty here and Call of Duty here, both. Those are my favorite
28:25games at the moment. And they also asked, because you brought up the single player thing as well,
28:29have there been any favorite mobile games that you came across?
28:35Any favorite mobile games? So, what's nice about
28:41mobile games is that they can be simple and fun. So, I think everyone heard about the game
28:48Among Us. Usually it was, yeah, so usually it was on like PC but they
28:57put it in the phone and I think the game saw a huge success
29:05because of mobile gamers. So, yeah, Among Us was really fun,
29:11especially when you play it with friends. Yeah, for those in the audience who are not aware, Among Us
29:16is a murder mystery game. It's more of a whodunit game where someone plays the role of an imposter
29:22who has to basically get rid of all the other players in the game. It's playable up to eight
29:26people. It was paid on PC and basically it was free on mobile, ad supported, but it was also
29:33one of this year's most played mobile games ever. In fact, it got the award, the Game Award for
29:38Best Mobile Game Ever. And it just goes to show basically in the ecosystem that mobile and PC
29:43gaming can go hand in hand in a very seamless way. And with that said, we will be wrapping up
29:49this session. Thank you all so much for joining. And honestly, it's been a very informative
29:55session. Thank you so much to our panelists who have basically taken the time to come out here to
29:59talk about everything in the industry. We look forward to your game, Haider, when it comes out.
30:04And Bashar, definitely going to be watching your content more this year. And to Tariq, absolutely.
30:11It's been great talking to you and we look forward to seeing what Oppo has to offer
30:18in the coming years. Thanks, Kevin. Thank you, everyone. Sorry, before we cut off,
30:24another question just came in really quickly to Haider. Do you think that AR games are the future
30:29of mobile gaming? Yes, we do. So we always do our research as well and, you know, find
30:40these market gaps and we are looking forward to fill it up. And this is also like...
30:47So AR, it's like it has come a long way and, you know, it's like... And we think that it will be...
30:58It will have the good advantage of it, like, you know, so the advantages, like,
31:04it will be on the AR, it will be much better than any other game. And the devices are, like,
31:11getting better and we always look forward. Absolutely. And the same question is now being...
31:19It's been told to ask the entire panelists. Bashar, what are your thoughts on AR gaming?
31:28So I played some AR gaming in the past, let's say the very old AR games, when you
31:37open your phone and see stuff. But now I see that they are becoming more advanced,
31:44like, we can really see something that is... We can, like, in the near future, we can really see
31:52AR games that became as popular as just any normal mobile games at the moment. So yeah,
31:59I'm really excited to see what the future holds for AR games. Okay, we have another question and
32:05this one's a bit of a difficult one to answer. I'm putting this across to all of you now. Sorry,
32:10we're getting a lot of questions in right now because we've got a lot of people asking questions
32:13about mobile gaming. Do you think that mobile gaming will replace traditional console and PC
32:20games? And it's a very difficult question to answer, but I would like to hear your thoughts on it.
32:26I think, okay, from my side to start with, I think both of them are going to be essential,
32:33but the part of mobility is already an essential part of it. So most of the time,
32:40doing mobile, going from one thing to another, and with the advancement of game creation,
32:45you start the game in the comfort, you can continue it on your device on the way when
32:49you're traveling. So this is how we find the interconnectivity between the home-based
32:54home-based devices and the mobile devices.
32:59All right, Haider? Well, I think it will take a bigger stake than before and
33:06everything is going to mobile now these days. And so, of course, I would believe that the mobile
33:13phone gaming, it will be much bigger than before and will take a bigger stake. I wouldn't say it's
33:20replace it, but it will take a big chunk of the market. Okay. And Bashar, yeah, it's going to be
33:27a very difficult question for us gamers, right? If someone says mobile gaming will replace it.
33:32So I don't think it will, but I think that mobile gaming will become more popular than
33:39like console gaming. It will become more popular because it's simple that everyone can, everyone
33:44have a mobile, everyone can buy mobile, but not everyone can build a PC or buy a console. But
33:52right now, we see very big gaming company, let's say Nintendo, they are
33:59focusing on making games on mobile, which we have never seen before. Like we only, like I
34:06think everyone knows Nintendo, they have Super Mario and stuff. They always make
34:11games for their devices. Now, I think in the last year, they start making Super Mario
34:18on the phone. So we see big company are now changing their focus to making games on mobile.
34:25So we can easily see it would become more popular, but I don't think it will replace it.
34:31Understood. And it's interesting though, I do hope we do see an eSport mobile segment coming up very
34:35soon in the Game Awards, because that's pretty much going to be the future for gaming as far
34:39as I'm concerned. Now, my next question is, Tariq, VR and AR gaming are on the rise. What's
34:44OPPO's plan for that category beyond a strong smartphone hardware? So like I said before,
34:51OPPO You Know Day, we've already announced our OPPO AR Glasses 2021, which really expands on the AR
34:59and the VR part. And in addition to that, OPPO has been already doing research on AR since 2014.
35:07And I believe the research over the years have really helped us to come up with the OPPO AR
35:122021, the OPPO Glass. For example, from last year to this year, already the design of the
35:18glass have reduced by almost 75% because of the new technologies and the new hardware that we
35:23were able to do, which will really help the consumer on the wearable experience. Because,
35:28of course, how light and how the design of the glass will help the consumer, whether you're
35:33using it for how long and so on. So, of course, AR is quite important from our side. And I believe
35:40AR as a technology, it's quite an important technology that gaming would be a part of it,
35:47but it will also touch many different other verticals in our lives, whether it's education
35:51or even different industries and commercials. So it will have a lot of impact on our future
35:59technology and how we deal with things. So my question is to, I think it's both to you and
36:06Tariq and Haider. Can we expect mobile phones to have extensions similar to gaming controls to
36:11make playing games easier? Yeah, Haider, please. Yeah. Yeah, it's actually, it's, yes, and it is
36:24existing now. There are some extensions and gizmos for this with the Nintendo Switch as well. So
36:32like it would be there and it depends on the hardware as well. If the hardware is sufficient
36:37enough, they won't need these extensions, but these extensions will be there and there are
36:46existing ones now to enhance the adventure and the gaming experience.
36:53Yeah. Tariq? From my side to Haider, yes, exactly. Some of the extensions are available.
37:01I believe that there's going to be different types of extension that's going to be
37:05also available in the future. We also have to remember the IoT and the connectivity. So I
37:11believe there's going to be many possible devices that will connect to improve our gaming experience
37:16and many other experiences on the phone as well. Okay. A question to Bashar as well. Does screen
37:24size matter when it comes to buying phones for gaming? Is that something that you consider when
37:28you're basically playing games on the phone? Question, Bashar, sorry. I'm not sure if you
37:39heard me there. I don't think he can hear us. He's cut off. We'll go on to the next question,
37:47actually. It's the final question, actually. With technology constantly evolving, what is the
37:52future of the mobile gaming industry? This is a good question for both Tariq and you, Haider.
37:59Basically, where do you see the mobile gaming industry going from here on?
38:02Well, actually, I can see that it's getting better and better. And, you know, everything
38:06is getting into mobile now these days. So definitely, I would think that this, it is
38:13evolving and it will be improving and it can go beyond expectations. I totally agree. I totally
38:23agree because I believe we're in the evolution part of the gaming mobile, the great hardware
38:29that we have on, for example, on OPPO devices. But like I said, we expect that there's going
38:34to be a whole new revolution when it comes to the hardware and the gaming experience because,
38:39for example, of the OPPO 2021X device, the rollable AMOLED screen device or the AR glass,
38:45this will open the creativity and the possibility for gaming communities and the content creator
38:50to really an unlimited spectrum. So we believe that there's going to be on quite a
38:56advancement and on the rise.
39:02Right. And sorry, Bashar, thanks for coming back. The final question to you,
39:06is a mobile, do you look for the, how important is a mobile screen for you when it comes to gaming
39:11on a mobile phone? Actually, it is very important. It's just as important as the hardware because,
39:18especially if you play shooting games, shooting games really need a big screen. So I would say
39:25it depends on what kind of games are you planning to play on the phone. So yeah, it is important.
39:36All right. With that said, the question and answer session has been wrapped up. Thank you
39:39so much for your time again, gentlemen. And thank you for the audience for giving us these
39:43informative questions. We learned quite a bit of what is going on in the mobile gaming industry,
39:47and definitely it's going to be, all eyes are going to be on you, Tariq, Haider, Bashar,
39:51in different ways. And I can't wait to see what's going to be lined up for 2021 when it comes to
39:56gaming and mobile gaming. And with that said, I'm your host, Kevin Sebastian, and thank you so much
40:01for joining today's session, brought to you by OPPO and Gulf News, and we shall see you for the
40:05next one. Thanks, Kevin. Thank you, everyone. Take care. Have a good day. Bye. Bye-bye.