There’s a stark contrast between the cultures of New Zealand and Mexico. Given that there’s an 11,000-kilometre stretch across the Pacific Ocean that divides the two countries, there are significant differences in food, time zones, music, language, culture, and climate – as you’d expect. With the universal nature of gaming culture, ranging from video consoles to casino gaming, there are far more similarities between the countries in this field, but we will also see what factors set them distinctly apart.
Gaming culture in New Zealand
It’s key to distinguish the different types of gaming culture in New Zealand. There is, of course, the console gaming industry. Tens of thousands of gamers right across New Zealand enjoy playing a variety of console games, with PlayStation, Xbox, and PC games all finding an audience among Kiwis. In addition to console gaming, there is a growing market for online gambling, which is something that Kiwis have been partial to through the years, whether it be sports betting or casino gaming.
Despite the relatively small population in New Zealand, the gambling and video gaming industries both generate eight-figure profits. New Zealand’s gaming industry has embraced the changes the internet has ushered in. Although Kiwis can now play roulette, poker, and blackjack in addition to placing wagers on their favorite sports, the video gaming console industry has also grown substantially due to these technological innovations.
Mexican gaming
New Zealand and Mexico share similarities in that they’re two of the biggest consumers of video games on their respective continents. Other than Australia, New Zealand is the biggest gaming market in Oceania. Comparatively, the Mexican gaming market is second only to the United States. One of the fascinating things about console gaming is that it has effortlessly bridged the gap between cultural and language differences.
While it is a lot easier for sports games to make this leap, there has been a significant number of gaming titles that have shifted hundreds of millions of units worldwide – with many selling well in Mexico and New Zealand. Interestingly, Mexico has witnessed a surge in social gamers and computer programmers, and designers aiming for new ways to create games with a different spin on the more conventional console gaming model.
Again, another comparison to draw between the two nations is the growing popularity of casino gaming. So, while Mexico might be much larger in terms of size and population, casino gaming and video console gaming are two areas that are of mutual interest to both countries.
Societal factors
Sony and Microsoft are the big names in video gaming, and they have pieced together strategies and multiple marketing techniques aimed at the Latin American and Oceania markets. One of the most notable differences is the sporting culture that fuels the popularity of specific games.
Mexico has a vast boxing and soccer culture, but there’s a significant portion of the population that also enjoys wrestling. While there is no longer a boxing game available, due to the decline of the sport’s popularity on a global scale, soccer games like FIFA are huge in Mexico, and WWE games have shifted millions of units across the North American country.
In New Zealand, the national sport is rugby union – no other sport comes anywhere near its popularity. Although there’s some interest in cricket and soccer, New Zealanders live and breathe rugby union, which is evident in their incredible showing in the World Cup and other international games and tournaments. This sporting culture is reflected in the games that the population of each country chooses to play, but there’s consistency when it comes to broader genres like action and first-person shooter titles.
Conclusion
As you’d expect, there are some clear differences between the gaming cultures of Mexico and New Zealand. These changes are symptomatic of the noticeable and obvious differences in their societies, but when it comes to gaming, many crossovers exist. It is a testament to how much gaming culture has created a global marketplace over the last 30 years.
While there might be some slight localized differences, multiple gaming industries have impacted both countries, and highly successful businesses have prospered in Mexico and New Zealand. So despite the fact they’re two of the most distant countries on a map, with a direct flight taking somewhere in the region of 20 hours, it is just as easy to find similarities between the cultures, and gaming is the one area that can display just how much they have in common.
