Ubisoft
Ubisoft, a French games developer, opened a studio in Abu Dhabi’s twofour54’s Park Rotana complex in late 2011. With a famous brand, a strong track record, pre-existing marketing, coding, and management expertise, Ubisoft did not face many of the obstacles facing other games manufacturers.
“Ubisoft had been looking at the Middle East since 2008. We knew that there was some raw programming knowledge with good universities in the region,” says Yannick Theler, the studio’s managing director, who was previously in charge of Ubisoft’s Shanghai outpost.
But recruiting staff is Mr Theler’s biggest challenge. “We knew it wouldn’t be easy, because video-game specific jobs and expertise are not here. There is raw expertise like coding and art that can be crafted,” he says. The company has launched a vocation programme for would-be developers in conjunction with twofour54 – the Gaming Academy – which offers a 16-month training course and the possibility of a career at Ubisoft’s Abu Dhabi branch. But even on completing this course, graduates are not yet industry-ready, says Mr Theler. “It’s important to teach people subjects like game design – we took three students at the end of the intake. So it’s a channel of recruitment for us.” Ubisoft’s Abu Dhabi studio currently in May released its first game, CSI: Hidden Crimes, available in nine languages but has not yet been released in Arabic. Mr Theler says he is keen to do so, however, and that he is working with other Ubisoft studios to localise games in Arabic.
Girnaas
The Qatari games studio Girnaas was started by three postgraduate students, the telecoms and management student Munera Al Dosair, the coder Faraj Abdulla and the artist Ali Al Jaber.
Their flagship release, Gidaam, is a clone of Mario, which sees protagonists in Arab dress replace the famous Italian plumber. Girnaas found funding from the Qatari government, through an incubation scheme run by iCity Qatar. The trio submitted a business plan, and won 570,000 Qatari Riyals (Dh575,055).
The company then became the first in Qatar to launch a successful funding round on the crowdfunding website IndieGoGo – in one month the company raised US$250,000.
The company is now seeking an angel investor. “We’re not just looking for money specifically, but for partnership,” says Mr Al Dosari, now the company’s managing director. One of Gidaam’s characters in particular, a chubby, middle-aged woman named Umthahab, has proved popular, he adds.
The company aims to release a game centred on the adventures of Umthahab shortly.
THQ
The publisher THQ, in collaboration with the UAE’s Pluto Games, released a localised edition of Wall-E in 2008 to accompany the Pixar film of the same name.
It was the first western video game to be officially translated into Arabic. Despite being one of the first western publishers to enter the Arab-language games market, THQ quickly learned the necessity of cultural relevancy. Wall-E was unsuccessful, as it was marketed to Saudi Arabia, a country with just one cinema, says Howard Lee, the chief executive of Tahadi Games Media, which has offices across the region.
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The rules on fostering in the UAE
A foster couple or family must:
- be Muslim, Emirati and be residing in the UAE
- not be younger than 25 years old
- not have been convicted of offences or crimes involving moral turpitude
- be free of infectious diseases or psychological and mental disorders
- have the ability to support its members and the foster child financially
- undertake to treat and raise the child in a proper manner and take care of his or her health and well-being
- A single, divorced or widowed Muslim Emirati female, residing in the UAE may apply to foster a child if she is at least 30 years old and able to support the child financially
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
NO OTHER LAND
Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal
Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham
Rating: 3.5/5
Three ways to boost your credit score
Marwan Lutfi says the core fundamentals that drive better payment behaviour and can improve your credit score are:
1. Make sure you make your payments on time;
2. Limit the number of products you borrow on: the more loans and credit cards you have, the more it will affect your credit score;
3. Don't max out all your debts: how much you maximise those credit facilities will have an impact. If you have five credit cards and utilise 90 per cent of that credit, it will negatively affect your score.
