Skyscrapers are all over Dubai.
Skyscrapers are all over Dubai.
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How Dubai aims to create 30,000 game jobs and $1B in economic impact by 2033 | Faisal Kazim interview

Dubai has set some ambitious goals for creating 30,000 jobs in the game industry and achieving $1 billion in economic impact by 2033.

One of the primary people responsible for hitting those goals is Faisal Kazim, director of future foresight for the Dubai Future Foundation. He was instrumental in pulling together the different gaming interests in the emirate to set up the Dubai Program For Gaming 2033 in November 2023 — which has the goal of turning Dubai into one of the world’s top 10 gaming hubs. I interviewed him about the progress so far.

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Written by

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.