YUGs?  YUGs.  YUGs!  Ok, I’ll be honest; I didn’t know what it meant either.  YUGs refers to a massively growing market in Mexico.  Young Unmarried Gamers.

According to a recent report from Research and Markets Ltd., Mexican YUGs could account for a $1 billion industry by 2010.  While Mexico is traditionally a market caught up in piracy, report lead analyst Phung Pham say, “There is a booming gamer population and despite problems with piracy, a substantial level of legitimate business.”

In Mexico it’s commonplace for young adults to remain with their parents until they get married.  This equates to a large population living at home while still making oodles of deposable cash.  One would think that this money would be stuffed away into a savings account, but hey…these young unmarried professionals aren’t any different from the rest of us, and want to have a bit of fun as well.  In other words, large amounts of non-rent paying 20 something’s are dumping lots of money into video games.
Studies show that only a decade ago the average age of marriage in Mexico for women was 20, and men 23.  Fast-forward to 2008, and these statistics have changed rapidly.  The average age for women is now at 25, and men at 28.

Capitalizing on this trend, independent developers like Xibalba Studios are offering the YUGs exactly what they want: bilingual pixel goodness.  Whether or not they follow the already existing Asian free-to-play model, remains to be seen, but given the target audience it would be the most appropriate choice.  With low entry costs and a huge market, Mexico might be the up and coming hot spot to watch.

About Xibalba Studios:

Xibalba Studios is an independent company with a global vision devoted to create games that are original, innovative, and above all fun by using the latest gaming technology to achieve the highest quality standards.

Founded on November 15th 2004 in the city of Monterrey (Mexico), Xibalba Studios’ goal is to become one of the leading developers of 3D casual games in the world.

Even before starting Xibalba Studios, the team already had the experience and recognition of the industry by participating in the development of nine games and having been nominated twice at the Independent Games Festival.

Xibalba created a small tech demo called Space Monkey in 2004 to test the game engine that was developed in-house.

After that, we created a prototype based on an ancient Mayan ball game.

Recently we have been working for a little over a year on a new project that will be announced soon.

We are located in the Northeast part of Mexico, in the city of San Pedro Garza GarcÍa, N.L. which is part of the metro area of Monterrey.