Game makers bet big on Singapore

By Sheryl Lee

When countries all over the world collectively plunged into lockdowns earlier this year, cinemas closed, malls emptied and restaurants shuttered across the globe. Swathes of people retreated home, flocking instead to virtual worlds—escaping reality through their phones, computers and gaming consoles.

Thanks to this pandemic-driven surge in gaming interest, the global games business has been one of the few bright spots in an uncertain world economy. This year, it grew an astonishing 20 percent^[1], partly backed by demand in fast-growing markets including Vietnam, Thailand, Indonesia and other Southeast Asian countries.

Though the Republic may be a little red dot on the map, the country has been able to attract titans in the games industry ranging from Ubisoft and Bandai Namco to Riot Games and Tencent—but how? This was the question posed by moderator Mr Simon Davis, CEO of Mighty Bear Games, at a panel discussion held during the Singapore Games Market Bootcamp last 30 November 2020. IMPact News brings you key insights from the discussion.

Rich in regional talent

Southeast Asia’s explosive gaming growth has attracted an increasing number of game makers looking to set up shop in Singapore. One such company, Voodoo—also known as the world’s largest mobile games publisher—recently announced the opening of a new Singapore office to better tap on regional talent.

“The attraction is pretty simple. It’s talent,” Voodoo Asia-Pacific President Mr Julian Corbett told the eager audience at the Singapore Games Market Bootcamp. “To really unlock the opportunities of APAC in general and Southeast Asia in particular, we recognise we have to be closer to where the talent is, to be able to talk to them.”

This emphasis on developing and utilising regional talent was also echoed by fellow panellists Mr David Ng, CEO and co-founder of Singapore games publisher goGame, and Mr Damien Leyris, a senior associate producer at Ubisoft. 

Indies making their mark

When Mr Wong first left gaming giant Koei Tecmo to venture out on his own, he recalled how he “couldn’t really sleep the whole night.” After all, leaving a large game conglomerate to start your own business can be nerve-wracking, to say the least. 

“The diversity of profiles and experience really bring a lot to the creativity of the games that you’re building,” added Mr Leyris.

Vying for value and volume

Behind global game makers’ relentless hunger for Southeast Asian talent is their drive to harness opportunities in a rapidly growing region, shared Mr Ng. “The market is growing at a phenomenal rate,” he said. “There’ll probably be over a billion new handsets coming into the emerging markets in the near future, and that would give us a much larger access to gamers and players.”

Mr Leyris added that another major opportunity would come in the form of cloud gaming. Also called gaming-on-demand or gaming-as-a-service, cloud gaming involves running video games on a cloud of remote servers, with these games in turn streamed directly to the user’s device. Accordingly, a subscription model through cloud gaming would enable budding gamers to overcome hardware constraints and allow for access in new ways, he said.

Though the region has seen explosive growth, Mr Davis also cautioned during the session that volume doesn’t always translate to value. “It’s the world’s fastest growing smartphone market, but there’s still a lot of value to unlock,” he explained, “The revenue side still has a lot of catching up to do and we have to find ways in the industry to bridge that gap.”

The competition heats up

With global game makers drawn to the region, competition in Southeast Asia is growing more intense, noted Mr Ng. On the supply side, the bigger companies’ need for talent poses a challenge for smaller firms looking to attract and retain high-quality employees.

Meanwhile, on the demand end, an increase in the number of Southeast Asian gamers does not directly translate to revenue growth. Paying more for premium games remains “extremely unpopular,” Mr Ng explained, with only a small proportion of the population willing to do so. “There can only be a few of these big companies having their share of the wallets in this industry,” he surmised.

The Southeast Asian market is teeming with abundant opportunities, but firms need to employ savvy strategies to harness them amid the fierce competition to grow sustainably, the panellists concluded. For many of these game makers, setting up shop in Singapore is their best first step.