KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — Investments in the digital content sector in Malaysia surged to RM1.6 billion last year from RM550 million in 2022 through the Digital Malaysia initiative by the Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).
Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo said more than 1,900 high-paying jobs were created in the sector in 2023.
“Over the past few years, Malaysia has successfully attracted investments from several large-scale studios such as Electronic Arts/Codemasters (2011), Streamline Studios (2015), Bandai Namco (2017), PlayStation Studios (2019), Larian Studios (2019), and Virtuous (2022),” he told a press conference in Parliament today.
He also said Malaysia’s digital creative industry recorded exports worth RM1 billion across 120 markets by 2022, and that the sector is growing by 8 per cent annually.
“Currently, Malaysia has over 300 studios involved in animation, games, and creative technology, with 20 new studios established every year, as well as over 180 intellectual property rights of Malaysian origin,” he said.
He pointed out that the global market size for the digital games industry was US$455 billion (RM2.1 trillion) in June, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11.4 per cent for the 2019-2024 period.
Gobind shared that local company Kurechii Sdn Bhd, which developed the game “Tiny Guardians”, had penetrated the international market and won the Indie Prize Awards' Best in Show by Audience Votes and Casual Connect 2015.
He added that local video game developer 7th Beat Game Sdn Bhd, which created the computer game “Rhythm Doctor”, entered the global market and secured a publishing deal with Indienova, a Chinese company, to be marketed in China.
“Malaysia had 20.1 million gamers in 2020, the majority of whom — 75 per cent — play mobile games, and 66 per cent use personal computers as their digital game platform,” he noted.
Among measures taken by the Digital Ministry to support the country’s game developers are the implementation of the Digital Content Creators Challenge programme, which has helped 135 start-up/indie digital game companies and providing the Digital Content Grant.
“To foster more game developers among Malaysians, MDEC has also planned to implement the Digital Creator Incubation Programme,” he said.
Gobind said this in response to a question from Syahredzan Johan (PH-Bangi) about existing measures to support game development in Malaysia, especially indie game development, as well as plans to foster more Malaysian game developers.
— Bernama
