The following is a report from The Star. Is this the beginning
of preparation for Virtual Reality Training for the MAF ?
Or will it be another "hot air balloon" like the much touted
Multimedia Super Corridor that was launched with loud hullabaloo,
and remain as "hot air" after more then three years ?
RM61m to build regional online gaming
hub in Malaysia
By M. MADHAVAN
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia is set to become a regional
online gaming hub with Malaysia Debt Ventures (MDV) awarding a
RM61mil (US$16mil) loan to Terra ICT (M) Sdn Bhd to create an
online gaming portal.
Terra ICT (M) Sdn Bhd, a joint venture between Bintai Kinden
Corporation Bhd and Japan's Terra Corporation, said it aims to be
the premier South-East Asian online game content distributor.
The portal at www.e-games.com.my, which will be the world's first
virtual store for online games according to the company, is slated
to launch in September.
Terra Corporation, an Internet technology and solutions provider,
chose Malaysia because of the IT infrastructure found at the
Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC), and because it had managed to
secure the loan, said Tom Tamura, Terra ICT chief executive
officer.
While other countries, like Singapore, could provide similar
infrastructure, they did not have well-planned means of providing
financial support, he said.
"Terra ICT's formation opens up a whole new window of opportunity
for Malaysians to learn and gain exposure from one of the region's
foremost content creators in the online gaming sector," said Jiro
Suzuki, MDV managing director and chief executive officer.
"Ultimately it translates to increased attention on Malaysia as a
regional technology services hub, and potentially more foreign
direct investments into Malaysia," he said.
MDV, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Finance Ministry, was
established to identify and provide debt-financing to high
value-added technology and high-growth sectors through its RM1.6bil
ICT Fund.
It has already approved RM450mil to about 21 companies to
date.
Three phases
Terra ICT plans to achieve its goal in three phases and will first
begin by setting up hosting centres here and in the region. It has
completed one in Cyberjaya, said Tamura, although he declined to
give further details.
It next plans to secure distribution rights to online games from
Korea and will do this through Terra Corporation's Korean
subsidiary, Terra On Line Inc, which is expected to "choose good
games at bargain prices," he said.
A large sum of the loan would have to be used to purchase the
online games because good ones can easily cost US$2mil (RM7.6mil),
said Tamura.
By year end, Terra ICT will have 15 online games, covering such
genres as Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games
(MMORPGs), first person shooters (FPS), as well as action, sports
and board games.
"We plan to acquire 10 games every year after that, for the next
three years," said C.S. Chin, Terra ICT chief operating
officer.
"Users will be required to purchase points that can be used to play
any online game on the portal -- this differs from many other
online game hosting companies, which have only one or two games to
offer," he added.
In the pipeline are prepaid cards, with which users can purchase to
top up their points, he said.
Local content
In phase three, Terra ICT aims to develop its own multiplayer games
by transferring technology from Terra On Line's Korean partners,
and it hopes to have games in English and local languages.
Terra ICT expects to churn its first local game in 14 months, said
Chin.
A beta version will be available next month, and will feature maps
from Langkawi Island and warriors equipped with the keris, he
said.
"Content will be developed from the ground up, with heavy
considerations given to locally relevant story lines, characters
and environments," said Tamura.
Terra ICT will hire about 100 local employees by year end, mainly
programmers, content developers and "game masters" to achieve this,
said Chin.
"Most online games lack game masters to monitor sessions so that
there won't be any cheating and to provide support to players," he
said.
About 40 to 50 of these 100 employees would be game masters, he
added.
No piracy
One of the most important considerations for choosing online games
over console or PC games was that online games wouldn't be affected
by piracy, said Tamura.
"With an online game we can charge monthly fees, whereas a console
or PC game is a one-off payment system and developers only get paid
once," he said.
Also, online games promise 'never ending' stories and can be kept
alive by continually changing its setting -- a console or PC game
will become obsolete in a matter of months, he claimed.
"Many might say that the Internet connection speed could pose a
problem but I believe that broadband connections are picking up and
will continue to grow and match our growth," he said.
Terra ICT expects to be profitable by June next year, although
Tamura declined to reveal how much it would make and would only say
"in the tens of million ringgit."
"We are targeting one million users by 2005 and you can pretty much
calculate how much money we would be able to make," he said.
US$1 = RM3.80
http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2003/6/3/technology/03mog&sec=technology