News

The Middle East Is Rapidly Becoming An eSports Hub

Events like the BLAST Premier World Finals in the United Arab Emirates are cementing the region’s reputation as a gamer’s paradise.

Published

1 year ago

December 12, 2023

Nour Nasir

the middle east is rapidly becoming an esports hub

eSports champions are gearing up for the Blast Premier World Final, hosted in Abu Dhabi on December 16 and 17. Gaming fans from around the world will gather to experience the action first-hand as “part of a three-year partnership with AD Gaming” that seeks to cement the UAE’s position in the gaming sector and “contribute to the growth of esports in Abu Dhabi”.

BLAST has already created a huge buzz around the eSports scene, and the tournament’s arrival in Abu Dhabi should boost the profile of the entire MENA region. According to a Statista survey, Egypt leads the region with 6.32 million residents who consider themselves gamers. Meanwhile, the UAE will be home to another 1.73 million participants by 2028.

To cater to the growing Middle Eastern fanbase, BLAST.tv will “bring fans closer to the action, serving up maximum excitement for esports lovers with a number of innovative features on offer, helping them watch events live like never from the comfort of their homes”.

Andrew Haworth, Director of Production and Operations at BLAST and Commissioner for BLAST Premier, explained that “esports has the ability to engage with hard-to-reach, tech-savvy, and young audiences, which separates it from other industries”.

Also Read: Top 10 Best Video Games Set In The Middle East

Unlike other sporting events, eSports has a unique selling point in that the games are live and accessible anywhere. “Through the healthy relationship technology has with esports, it is able to bring fans to the very heart of this viewing experience in an interactive and innovative way,” said Haworth, who is optimistic that the genre could soon become as big as F1 racing.

Recent data seems to agree, as surveys show that overall, people now spend more time watching eSports than they do with Netflix. BLAST aims to make esports a global experience that encapsulates “skill level, player stardom, drama, production quality, and storylines”.

News

Google Releases Veo 2 AI Video Tool To MENA Users

The state-of-the-art video generation model is now available in Gemini, offering realistic AI-generated videos with better physics, motion, and detail.

Published

2 days ago

April 16, 2025

Nour Nasir

Google

Starting today, users of Gemini Advanced in the MENA region — and globally — can tap into Veo 2, Google’s next-generation video model.

Originally unveiled in 2024, Veo 2 has now been fully integrated into Gemini, supporting multiple languages including Arabic and English. The rollout now brings Google’s most advanced video AI directly into the hands of everyday users.

Veo 2 builds on the foundations of its predecessor with a more sophisticated understanding of the physical world. It’s designed to produce high-fidelity video content with cinematic detail, realistic motion, and greater visual consistency across a wide range of subjects and styles. Whether recreating natural landscapes, human interactions, or stylized environments, the model is capable of interpreting and translating written prompts into eight-second 720p videos that feel almost handcrafted.

Users can generate content directly through the Gemini platform — either via the web or mobile apps. The experience is pretty straightforward: users enter a text-based prompt, and Veo 2 returns a video in 16:9 landscape format, delivered as an MP4 file. These aren’t just generic clips — they can reflect creative, abstract, or highly specific scenarios, making the tool especially useful for content creators, marketers, or anyone experimenting with visual storytelling.

Also Read: Getting Started With Google Gemini: A Beginner’s Guide

To ensure transparency, each video is embedded with SynthID — a digital watermark developed by Google’s DeepMind. The watermark is invisible to the human eye but persists across editing, compression, and sharing. It identifies the video as AI-generated, addressing concerns around misinformation and media authenticity.

While Veo 2 is still in its early phases of public rollout, the technology is part of a broader push by Google to democratize advanced AI tools. With text-to-image, code generation, and now video creation integrated into Gemini, Google is positioning the platform as a full-spectrum creative assistant.

Access to Veo 2 starts today and will continue expanding in the coming weeks. Interested users can try it out at gemini.google.com or through the Gemini app on Android and iOS.