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Govt expects President Esports Cup 2022 to turbocharge game development
Despite huge potential, the game ecosystem in Indonesia is relatively underdeveloped, because the essential conditions that would kick-start better development have never appeared simultaneously.
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Close-up of gamer hand holding a smartphone with Player's Unknown Battleground, also known as PUBG online-shooting gaming. It is an online multiplayer battle game. (Shutterstock.com/Lukmanazis)
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fter being held online for two consecutive years due to the pandemic, President Esports Cup is set to be held offline this year with three additional local games: Lokapala, Battle of Satria Dewa plus one from submission.
Aris Subiyono, an assistant deputy in Youth and Sports Ministry, said that Indonesia is able to source e-sports talents that can compete internationally, as can be seen in SEA Games 2021 in Vietnam, where Indonesian e-sports athletes took home two gold, three silver and one bronze medal.
“[In SEA Games 2021], we managed to achieve gold medals; this means, in quality, our players are capable of competing against [athletes from] other countries. The government is expecting that e-sports enthusiasts can create new talents for the future. One of the steps to take toward this goal is the President Esports Cup 2022,” Aris said.
Multiple government institutions collaborated to realize this annual tournament that has been held since 2019; similar to the earlier events, athletes can also compete in Free Fire, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang and PlayerUnknown’s Battleground (PUBG), on top of the three local games, in this President Cup 2022.
The head of Athletes, Achievement and IT at the Esports Indonesia (PBeSI) Ricky Setiawan said that finding athletes should not be hard, considering that there are 44.2 million gamers in Indonesia who have engaged in e-sports tournaments in the last three months, according to the federation’s survey.
The survey also found that there are 100 million Indonesian people who play games, which could translate to big market potential.
“For business, [e-sports industry] has a great potential, because not only do these people want to pay, they can afford to pay; that’s why Indonesian e-sports market potential is big,” said Ricky.
However, despite the huge potential, the game ecosystem in Indonesia is relatively underdeveloped, because the essential conditions that would kick-start better development have never appeared simultaneously.
“The potential in these three factors need to be present simultaneously [to commence a game ecosystem]: first, entrepreneurship; second, technical skills; and third, investment. Unfortunately, these three essentials have never appeared at the same time,” said Ricky.
“In 2016, I know how many investors were willing to get into game industry; but the other two factors were not readily available. Now, the technical skills and entrepreneurship are improving, but the investment side [is lacking],” he added.
This year’s President Esports Cup kicked off on Aug. 10, while the grand final will take place in Jakarta from Nov. 10 to 13.
