Syed Saddiq said that the country could achieve considerable returns from the e-sports industry. — Picture by Ben Tan

BANGKOK, Nov 22 — The Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) wants Malaysia not just to become an e-sports-playing country but also to be a developer of the game for export.

Its minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman said that the country could achieve considerable returns from the e-sports industry, in terms of foreign investment, the creation of high quality jobs with high wages and so on.

“We want youngsters in Malaysia not to just play the games but can also develop and export them. It generates income for the country as well as creates quality jobs, he told Bernama today.

He said this after checking out the facilities at the Thailand E-Sports Arena, here, which was the largest e-sports arena in Thailand.

Syed Saddiq said his ministry has developed a co-operation with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation Sdn Bhd (MDEC) and industry players in order to produce more young people who could develop e-sports games.

Many young Malaysians were capable of developing e-sports game software, but had to go abroad due to the lack of opportunities offered in the country, he said.

He urged the talented young people to return to Malaysia, as the government was now working to attract e-sports software developer companies to invest in the country, thus creating high quality job opportunities for them.

Earlier, the Youth and Sports Minister also visited the True Axion Interactive and Games Academy which were described as “e-sports factories” in Thailand, with between 200 and 300 young people paid well to produce e-sports games.

“They are paid between US$1,500 to US$3,000 (RM6,277 to RM12,554) a month to produce Triple A games,” he said, adding that Malaysia must not lose to Thailand, Singapore and Indonesia in developing the e-sports industry.

Meanwhile, Thailand E-Sports Arena founder and chief executive officer Jirayod Thepipit said e-sports was a huge affair in Thailand with more than 10 million people playing the electronic games.

“But most of them are playing it as a form of entertainment and not on a professional basis. We want to make it more professional,” he said adding that, the Arena was the biggest e-sports venue in Thailand, occupying more than 1,000 sq metre of space.

The Arena, located in Ratchadapisek Road in Bangkok, could accommodate 700 e-sports players at any one time and could support any e-sports games, he said. — Bernama