Sony invests in Carry1st to expand reach of PlayStation in Africa

Sony has made an undisclosed strategic investment into African mobile publisher Carry1st. As reported by CNBC, the Japanese company made the investment through its Sony Innovation Fund.

Carry1st is based in Cape Town, South Africa, and last year raised $27 million to develop and license new titles.

The company has worked on projects including Mine Rescue, Spongebob Squarepants: Krusty Cook-Off, and Ludo Blitz. It has also partnered with Riot Games to launch local servers for Valorant and brought Call of Duty: Mobile to the region in tandem with Activision Blizzard.

Carry1st co-founder and CEO, Cordel Robbin-Coker, said its partnership with Sony is still at the "exploratory" stage but hopes the PlayStation maker will buy into the idea that Africa will be the next big video game market to take flight.

"As large companies like Sony that have really strong footholds in tier-one and tier-two markets start thinking about where the next billion customers and gamers are going to come from, our pitch is that Africa is a prime market for that," he said. "We believe very firmly that there is an incredibly underrated console opportunity in Africa."

Robbin-Coker said many consumers across Africa are still buying consoles through gray market sellers, meaning there's an opportunity for Sony to cut out the middle man and start making headway in the region.

"Our hope is that we can help [Sony] to expand the reach of PlayStation in the region and support them in a range of ways, including broader go-to-market strategies, as well as digital payments," continued Robbin-Coker.

Carry1st is aiming to launch its debut first-party title in 2024 and Robbin-Coker is confident the studio will hit that target.