Malaysian universities meet skill needs as gaming industry grows

Malaysian universities are strengthening their links with video-game companies as the country cements its place as a regional hub for the industry.

The connections between video-game education in Malaysia and the gaming industry were further solidified last week following the signature of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the Management and Science University (MSU) in Kuala Lumpur and Xsolla, a US company that makes payment software for video games.

MSU has become the latest Malaysian university to collaborate with a gaming company in a long history of similar successful partnerships. University of Wollongong Malaysia signed an MoU with Codemasters Studios over a decade ago, and Sony PlayStation Studios also signed an agreement with The One Academy, an art and design college in Kuala Lumpur.

Ivan Yee, game ecosystem manager at Asia Pacific University of Technology & Innovation (APU), described the MoUs between universities and gaming companies as “more like a handshake” than a formal contract. But he added that these shared agreements are “beneficial” to students, who gain industry insights, visits to studios and an understanding of how the sector operates. 

President of Xsolla, Chris Hewish, voiced similar sentiments, saying that Xsolla’s partnership with MSU “gives students access to the technologies, workflows, and commercial infrastructure used throughout the industry”.

Yee formerly led game development incubation projects for a local government agency; at APU, he is responsible for “building the ecosystem around games” and “making sure the students have career paths”.

The gaming market in South-east Asia continues to grow, and Malaysia, in particular, is home to dozens of gaming studios, including international companies like Codemaster Studios, Streamlined Studios and Bandai Namco.

Tan Chin Ike, head of the School of Computing at APU, estimated that Malaysia has “about 12 international studios and over 85 local studios”. Ike said Malaysian universities had been focused on video games and talent development since the mid-1990s, citing reduced labour costs as the main reason why international companies were outsourcing jobs there.

Yee added that part of the appeal of Malaysia is that it is an English-speaking nation. “It’s easier for them to actually build outsourcing studios here as compared to maybe Indonesia or Thailand who still have very strong [native] languages.”

In response to industry demand, Ike said that all universities are trying to “grow the ecosystem” of gamers and developers who possess digital, storytelling and design skills.

According to Yee, there has also been a push from government to build a talent pipeline of developers who will launch their own games in Malaysia instead of working for international companies.

“We’re trying not just to develop graduates that can work for the studios. We’re trying to also develop some who might be a little bit more entrepreneurial – we want them to actually start up their own businesses and create products,” he explained. 

rosalind.skillen@timeshighereducation.com