Qene Games' App Store Struggles Highlight Challenges for Ethiopian Developers

The Ethiopian game development studio Qene Games experienced significant ups and downs with its major mobile game releases. Its game "Kukulu", centered around a flustered Ethiopian chicken, generated over 200,000 downloads between 2016 and 2020. However, the game was removed from major app stores due to an internal payment workaround that violated Apple and Google policies. Following this, the studio released "Gebeta", a digital version of the traditional board game, which garnered fewer than 20,000 downloads. Qene Games eventually sold "Gebeta" to a South African publisher, who rebranded and relaunched it as "Mancala Adventures", successfully scaling its user base. This outcome demonstrated that one of the studio's greatest successes was realized only after relinquishing control of its product. Overall, the experience highlights how Ethiopian developers can successfully attract users and interest, yet face structural hurdles within global digital ecosystem systems that determine who ultimately captures the financial value.