Image credit: egg Network’s Facebook page

Oh my, we’re in quite a pickle. It seems that our country’s Minister of Youth & Sports Syed Saddiq wants Malaysia to be an exporter of esports games, not just an esports-playing country.

He said the following to Malay Mail during a trip to Thailand to check out the plethora of esports facilities there.

“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 also urged talented Malaysians working overseas on games to return to their home country since the government is now working to attract esports software developer companies to invest in the country. In addition, the ministry has developed a co-operation with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation Sdn Bhd (MDEC) and industry players to produce more young ones to develop games of an esport nature.

Yeaaaahhhhh…….let’s break this down into point form:

-Nobody creates a game with the objective of being esports in mind. It’s more of a bonus. Games like Overwatch and CS:GO are built to be balanced and fun in the first place. The esports bit comes later once the game gets a huge following and community on a competitive level.

-There are already a bunch of competitive games out there that have the potential to go big within a region. Why not find a competitive game that’s growing in popularity in Malaysia and spend that money on grassroots/high-reaching tournaments & events instead of wasting resources in creating something new that may be a crapshoot?

–Making competitive multiplayer games that’s fun AND balanced is not cheap AND is not even a guaranteed formula for success. As much as I love games Battlerite, I can admit that it’s not going to surpass Dota 2 and League of Legends in terms of popularity and community/competitive fanfare. Remember Evolve, that competitive “esports” game made by the Left 4 Dead folks? Totally tanked and didn’t set the world on fire either.

Long story short, Malaysia is in the limelight again and not in the best kind due to spoutings like this.