Lobah on raising $12m and the opportunity for culturalised games in MENA

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The Dubai Game Expo Summit powered by Pocket Gamer Connects returns on May 7th to 8th 2025, offering a chance to gain insights into the world’s fastest-growing games market, MENA.

The MENA region is rife with games industry activity right now, whether that’s local studios raising funding, Savvy Games Group acquiring companies across the globe, or local partnerships with major games companies aimed at grpwomg the region’s emerging sector.

One developer in the middle of it all is Lobah, which has raised $12 million from Saudi Arabia’s Social Development Bank.

In January, the stduio launched Lobah Play, a platform for game publishing, networking and monetisation. Meanwhile, it has already launched several titles and is working on new games such as trivia game Kingdom of Letters, board game Jackaroo and a PvP battle royale title set in the Arabian peninsula named Faza.

We caught up with Lobah head of product and partnerships Ibrahim El Kawam to find out more about the company’s ambitions and how it plans to use its new investment.

PocketGamer.biz: Can you tell us a bit about Lobah and what you’re up to right now?

Ibrahim El Kawam: Lobah is proudly a Saudi Arabian, Riyadh-based game developer and publisher. Lobah is on a mission to be an example of the Kingdom’s ability to be a gaming hub while fostering the local ecosystem and supporting the knowledge transfer over here.

We develop our own first-party games and publish them along with third-party games on our gaming hub which is Lobah Play, available on the App Store and Google Play Play store, as well as some standalone games.

That’s at least who we are in a nutshell at the moment, as we have great plans and ambitions that will unfold with time. Our ultimate aim is to serve local and regional players and foster the gaming ecosystem while setting an example of what can be achieved in MENA.

As for myself, I’m the head of product and partnerships. I ensure all our products, whether internal or external, are up to our standard. I lead newer innovative initiatives and relationships with existing or new partners that align with our vision.

How many staff do you currently employ and where are they based? 

We’re currently at over 60+ employees reporting to our HQ in Riyadh and connected globally. We’re growing rapidly so we foresee that number potentially doubling by the end of the year to match the scale and ambition of the plans we’re taking on.

Lobah Play is designed for developers. How does it help them  monetise their games? And are there different revenue models available?

Our philosophy, especially for Lobah Play, is that it should provide the best possible instant gaming hub and social experience for players and the ideal publishing, engagement and monetisation platform for developers.

If we’re just talking about the development side of things, Lobah Play is meant to help out developers in more ways than just monetisation. It’s a gaming hub and community meant to bring together players from various demographics and interests to a unified gaming hub.

This provides developers with a solid, single accessible userbase, so discovery and user acquisition, which are two of the largest issues they face, is resolved.

We also have decades of combined experience in the MENA market which allows us to know how to prosper here, which we bring along to the developers that publish with us, especially when it comes to cultural and lingual localisation. 

We’re experts at monetisation that is fair, balanced and provides the most value for all parties so we actively guide developers on best practices, as well as how to extract/provide the most value. 

Lobah Play is ad-free by default, including the games we publish, so making sure monetisation outside of ad revenue is done well is key and we have had great success with that. 

By eliminating ads, which we believe maybe outside of opt-in ones takes away from the playing experience, we have to make sure we’re making up for the revenue.

As for our revenue model, we tend to be quite generous with them, as the core of our success in Lobah Play is the success of the developers and providing the best gaming experience plus value to our players.

There are a few variations, but at the core it’s based around the same win-win principles of revenue sharing. We occasionally may make exceptions especially if it aligns with our goal of fostering the local ecosystem.

What changes have you observed in the region in terms of consumer behaviour towards games? 

The region, and especially the Kingdom, is changing and evolving at a rapid pace on all fronts, not just gaming.

This is fuelled by a uniquely large young population, rapid adoption of digital advancements, exposure to elements from both the West and East, and a strong desire to always have the best or raise the bar.

When it comes to gaming, players have more options than ever but less time than ever with all the competition for attention, whether from games, social media, entertainment or otherwise.

This makes it a fierce market to compete in which is only amplified given that local players on a per capita basis spend among the most globally, whether in terms of time or money spent.

In terms of behaviour, what we’re observing is players’ standards have been raised significantly, their desire for localised and culturally relevant games, which unfortunately there’s not much off, is very palpable, and their strong preference for games with social or community elements.

Luckily for us we tackle all of these points as part of our core ethos as they are part of every game we either develop or publish.

What do you see as the current opportunities and challenges facing the games industry in Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region?

For the same reasons and points I mentioned above regarding consumer behaviour, the opportunities and challenges for Saudi Arabia and the wider MENA region arise. To be specific, these are the ones we’d say would apply to ourselves, as opportunities and challenges may differ based on perspective, capability and experience

I’ll start with the challenges:

Competition: Not just referring to competition when it comes to gaming, though 130+ games on average being released every day doesn’t make it easy to stand out. In modern day living it’s more about competing for users’ attention when they are already juggling many outlets of communication and entertainment, all on the same platform.

Lack of localisation/culturalisation: A lot of developers and publishers think that just because a game is successful outside of MENA, it’s bound to flourish there as well. While sometimes it does work, most of the time, and again given that the amount of available content in the market is already massive, it’s not enough.

Players here are craving games and content that’s culturally and lingually relevant, something they can connect with and speaks to them, letting them find themselves in it. It doesn’t have to be a full-on adaptation, but at least encompasses elements or caters to the unique blend of tastes this region has.

Bar being raised: Gamers from the region are among the most engaged and picky about what they decide to spend their time on. Players are going to go with what is the best possible option for what they are seeking, or at least at a standard that they’ve become accustomed to, which means any generic or not up to par game simply doesn’t have a chance.

Now for the opportunities:

Unique offering: Given the sheer amount of competition in the games industry overall, whether here in the region or otherwise, it’s crucial that whatever game is being presented be as unique of an offering as possible within the local context.

Lobah Play as a gaming hub with its feature set stands as an example of a unique overall offering and it will contain many more unique features when it comes to games themselves.

The offering to the market may not have to be as ambitious, but as long there’s an element of uniqueness, ideally with a local twist, it will have a significantly better opportunity.

Strong understanding: Those who are in the know or are well integrated within the local culture have a unique opportunity to create content and gameplay that those outside the circle don’t have the ability to replicate.

Those who nail down the gameplay and references, as well as know how to publish/market it in the region, stand to gain a significant following from those who are craving for more local flavour.

Player engagement: Given that local players are among the most engaged when it comes to games they genuinely enjoy then if you do manage a game that appeals and is designed for the local market, then regardless of scale, though scale can also be obtained, the returns from all aspects will be fantastic.

What are your thoughts on emerging technologies such as AI, AR and VR in games? And does Lobah have plans to incorporate AI into its game development process? 

At Lobah we’re always seeking to be on the leading edge of anything gaming related so of course we always have our eye on technologies such as AI & XR among many others.

When it comes to AI, we’re very keen on the opportunity it provides, whether from content generation, user communication/personalisation to augmenting development and improving operational efficiency overall.

We are integrating AI into our development process, but we also want to set the record straight that our intention and method of using AI is to provide an additional tool in the arsenal of our team and never to diminish or reduce their contributions, as the human element is irreplaceable.

At Lobah we always seek to empower and foster both our team and our players, so anything that isn’t in line with that we wouldn’t take part in, even if it seems to be the trend in some places.

What are your plans for the rest of 2025? Will you be exploring new platforms? And are there any projects on the horizon that we should look forward to?

Where do I start? There’s an incredible amount of plans and ambitions we have for the rest of the year and beyond.

Obviously we are planning on further developing, releasing and publishing games on Lobah Play. We’re currently in soft launch, but after that there’s much more to come.

We’re looking at standalone games as well, whether first or third-party. We’re in talks with numerous significant partnerships. We’re looking into expanding and investing in our growth as well as the local ecosystem as a whole. 

When it comes to other platforms outside of mobile, or even within, we are definitely looking into that as we do for any potential latent opportunity in the market.

As for projects on the horizon that you should keep an eye out for, I’d say any and all of what we’re planning, but let’s just say there will be one or some that will definitely stand out above all.

What that or those will be, as I think you’ve deduced by now and it’s just our style, we’ll leave as a monumental surprise for the near future. What we can say is “stay tuned”.