Deputy Minister: Global Game Entry Opens Opportunities to Develop Local Talent

Jakarta (ANTARA) - Deputy Minister for Creative Economy Irene Umar said the official presence of global gaming companies in the Indonesian gaming market brings opportunities for access to the game development ecosystem for local developers. Irene noted that Indonesian developer talent is already widely recognised by various countries and distributes its games globally, but is currently still constrained by access to game development kits needed by developers to create games for console platforms. “Therefore, in the first meeting with Nintendo, what I said was that Indonesia is a large market, we all like playing games, but we also have really good game developers, so when they enter Indonesia, I asked them to enter with their entire ecosystem,” Irene said at the Nintendo Switch launch event in Jakarta on Tuesday. She said the Indonesian market has a large user base for games, especially mobile games. However, from the developer side, many Indonesian developers are actually targeting the global PC and console markets. According to her, access to a game development kit is important because talent without adequate tools and platforms will find it difficult to develop optimally. For this reason, the government is also encouraging Nintendo’s presence to be followed by training so that local developers can understand how to enter the international console market. The presence of this ecosystem is expected to open more opportunities for Indonesian game developers to create works that are not only a source of pride domestically but are also able to penetrate the global market commercially. She said that Nintendo’s official presence is also part of the government’s efforts to reduce piracy. The government encourages the public to use and purchase official game products while providing opportunities for local works to compete based on quality. “One of our ministry’s commitments is to ensure copyright infringement or piracy does not occur. To prevent piracy, we must ensure the original goods enter Indonesia,” she said. She hopes game developers get the opportunity to create games that make Indonesia proud and can also go global. On the other hand, the government views the gaming industry as one of the new sources of growth for the creative economy. The growth of the application and game sub-sector, which reached 18 percent, shows the sector’s increasing potential. Irene said the presence of global companies like Nintendo is not merely seen as the entry of foreign players into the Indonesian market. The government sees it as the arrival of a platform or stage for local developers to develop and market their works to the global market. With the platform, access to development tools, training, and global markets, Indonesian game developers are expected to improve quality, expand distribution, and make games one of the export sources for Indonesia’s creative economy.