LEVEL UP KL 2019 is an annual Southeast Asia premier industry event for game developers initiated by MDEC ( Malaysia Digitial Economy Corporation). LEVEL UP KL 2019 will be organized by MDEC this year, which will be LEVEL UP KL on its fifth year and still going strong. The event will serve as a key role in hopes of furthering initiatives such as #healthygaming where government and the private sector can come together to project a positive image of esports to the public under a common banner.

LEVEL UP KL 2019 will be open up to the public on November 6th till November 10th. With the hopes that Malaysia to be a regional hub akin to the Tokyo Game Show and GamesCom. LEVEL UP KL 2019 will gather the conversations on the global games industry and esports from the perspective of the developers, players, community and government for better understanding and developing the regional ecosystem.

The announcement of LEVEL UP KL 2019 was delivered by Puan Surina Shukri, the CEO of MDEC. In attendence were YB Tuan Gobind Singh Deo, Minister of Multimedia and Communications, Thomas Rosenthal from 505 Games and the local heroes of Malaysia, which is Wan Hazmer, the CEO of Metronomik, and DC Gan, the CEO of Magnus Game Studios.

With the Southeast Asia fasting growing esports market in the world, MDEC searches of opportunity to continue on growing the nation’s games industry through esports ecosystem development through 2019 and beyond. Therefore, MDEC took the opportunity by signing an MOU with the Malaysian Esports Federation Malaysia on collaboration towards the development, promotion and acceleration of the Malaysian esports ecosystem, thanks to Dato Ananth S Nathan, the President of Malaysia Esports Federation for the partnership.

A few months ago, Puan Surina Shukri stated that she was able to meet  Shawn Layden, the Chairman of PlayStation Worldwide Studios. He talked about on how, as the malaysians growing mature in the growth of the gaming industry as it requires diverse people, stories and cultures. She simply replied that Malaysia’s strength is our diversity. He agrees to it as well. He can see it in Malaysia’s work produced in their companies.

The Ministry of Communications and Multimedia (KKMM) announced today that it is working with MDEC to establish a new Digital Content Ecosystem (DICE) policy to strengthen the local digital content industry and ultimately position Malaysia as the leader in digital content creation and production in region.

YB Gobind Singh Deo, the Minister of Communications and Multimedia said:

Malasysia, which sits in the heart of South East Asia is well poised to further grow and solidify its position as the games development hub of the region. Malaysia is attractive to digital content and creative tech studios due to its youthful demographic, access to talent with cultural influences from both the East and West and a higher education system that has a focused tech-track.

The DICE Policy, to be spearhead by MDEC, aims to accelerate the digital content creative industry as a driver of economic growth in Malaysia. The policy will focus on attracting investments,building local talentand companies and strengthening the ecosystem through goverment and private sector partnership. It also aims to advance research, IP creation, commercialization, branding and marketing capabilities in order to improve its export potential. Equally important, this policy will also look at its Best Practices in order to promote a healthy animation and gaming environment for all users. In order to develop the new DICE policy, the government has decided to take a collaborative approach. MDEC will be organizing town halls and focus group discussions with the industry, academia and those related and interested to this industry.

MDEC CEO Puan Surina Shukri said:

Malaysia needs a comprehensive development plan to fully take advantage of th market opportunities ahead. MDEC, through our Creative Content Team, has been working hard to grow the local creative content industry over the past few years. This has resulted in Malaysia enjoying a head-start in digital content development in the region and Malaysia’s talents and ceative IP’s are gaining global recognition. The DICE strategy will help to unleash the talent of our digital content and drive faster growth.

DICE’s objective are to:

• Attract anchor game and animation studios to bridge and accelerate expansion of the games and animation sector
• Raise local industry capabilities
• Facilities access to world-class technology, infrastructure and market distribution platforms to overcome challenges posed by costly toolsets and market environments
• Develop a sustainable funding ecosystem
• Leverage esports as a catalyst to digital content ecosystem

The DICE strategy focuses on 4 key pillars:

• Strengthening human capital through skills, exposure and access to the digital content ecosystem
• Strengthening the industry’s value chain through quality, competetive and world-class digital content
• Drive the commercialisation of intellectual property (IP) to improve the quality and output of digital content
• Drive the Nation’s ecosystem to global standards, making Malaysia as the regional hub for digital content production

For more information on the LEVEL UP KL 2019, check out their official website.