Nurturing Local Start-ups and Talent in Electronic Game Development and E-sports

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, video games and e-sports are rapidly growing industries. They generated over US$140 billion globally in 2018, of which almost half was from the Asia Pacific region. In Singapore, the development and distribution of video games contributed S$1.95 billion in 2017. This includes activities by foreign companies with operations in Singapore, such as Ubisoft and Bandai Namco, as well as local firms such as Sea and GoGame. On the community engagement front, events such as e-sports tournaments have also been organised in the heartlands to bring our youths together. An example is the "Yio Game On" event, that was organised at Yio Chu Kang Community Club in May this year, which was well received.

Government agencies have been supporting local start-ups and companies in this space. Sea, formerly known as Garena, is one of Singapore's unicorns and first made its mark through its platform for video games. The games industry has also catalysed the growth of other companies in the eco-system, such as Razer and Secretlab, which are globally prominent lifestyle brands amongst gamers today.

We are building on such successes through several approaches. First, we are helping our companies to grow. Launched in 2017, the Startup SG initiative provides local companies a range of financial and non-financial support such as mentorship and start-up capital support through the Startup SG Founder programme. In addition, companies can leverage sector-specific initiatives such as the IMDA's PIXEL innovation space, which offers incubation and co-working spaces for digital start-ups so they can develop their projects with the right technical and business support.

Second, we are deepening capabilities. We are building a robust talent pipeline for the video games industry. Local game schools such as DigiPen Institute and Nanyang Polytechnic offer courses for aspiring game designers and artists to develop their skills. IMDA also works with EDB to attract internationally-acclaimed studios, providing a platform for our entrepreneurs to gain valuable experience before starting their own studios.

Third, we are building a vibrant and enabling eco-system. For example, game engine company Unity Technologies has been supporting gaming startups at PIXEL with mentorship, workshops, and technical support since 2018. This ecosystem has supported companies like BattleBrew Productions, founded by a DigiPen graduate, and whose first mobile game IP won the Visitor’s Choice Award at the GameStart Asia 2018 convention.

Finally, we are building international mindshare. During our ASEAN Chairmanship last year, the first ASEAN e-sports and music festival, Hyperplay, was held in Singapore. The event was well-attended by over 8,000 youths of different backgrounds and featured the first League of Legends ASEAN tournament. Singapore will also host the first Asian edition of Gamescom in 2020. Gamescom is the world’s largest video games industry event and business platform. The Singapore edition will also let our video games companies showcase their capabilities and connect with prospective investors, collaborators and buyers. STB will continue to be on the look-out for other major events which can be hosted in Singapore, to further augment our position as a video games and e-sports hub in the region.

I thank the Minister for his reply. Just a few supplementary questions in relation to electronic game development and e-sports.

Firstly, I understand that there are graduate courses, diploma courses such as DigiPen, as the Minister mentioned. What avenues and platforms are available for Singaporeans to get post-graduate training? Because in order to develop sophisticated and successful games, post-graduate training in the necessary skills should be available. I know some big multinational companies do provide training. I believe that, in general, this training is provided to their own employees and it is not open-sourced and available to everyone. So, what are the avenues that are available for post-graduate training?

Secondly, does IMDA or other Government agencies still provide start-up grants to electronic game development start-ups or e-sports start-ups in Singapore? If so, what has been the trend in the grants given and what has been the success associated with that?

Thirdly and lastly, is support given to game developers to market their own games directly to customers independently of a publisher? I ask this because a game development company can go through a publisher in order to market their game, and the publisher then takes a large part of the margin. That is value that otherwise the game development company could capture. Is support given to game development companies and, if necessary, grants? Are they given without requiring them to be allied to a publisher, to be endorsed by a publisher, to work with the publisher, but instead just encourage them to actually market their games directly to customers through platforms like Steam or App Store, or so on, and, therefore, capture a lot more value and become more financially self-sustaining?

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, let me respond to the three questions in more generic terms of how we spend money and when we spend money.

First, on the issue of post-graduate training. Whether we start any post-graduate course, whether for e-sports or any other thing, depends on the demand for the course and curriculum. In today's world, the mental model of just going for post-graduate courses is a bit passé. In many of these areas that are fast evolving, the best training is not in a post-graduate course. The best training and the best exposure is actually with the leading edge companies.

So, while post-graduate courses are important, we will continue to monitor whether we need to start a post-graduate course and have the critical mass to do so, and if there is a market demand to do so. At this point in time, it is still early days. But what we should really do is to make sure that our aspiring e-sports gamers, designers or developers have the best opportunities to work with the best around the world. So, getting them into companies to have the necessary exposure is important.

The Member's second and third questions are related to how should the Government spend grants and who do we give the grants to, and should we interfere in the commercial arrangements between developers and some of these gaming houses?

In general, I would state this: we are using public money, we are not in the business of choosing winners and losers, and that is not the way we develop our industries. Any entrepreneur who wants to start up a new business can obviously get various forms of help from the Government, but it will not be the appropriate role for the Government to pick and say that this is better done than another thing. In fact, actually the best test of where to apply the funds will certainly be the markets. A good idea will always have opportunities with the venture capitalists and so forth.

Whenever we spend Government money, which is actually the public's money, then we have to be very careful and ask ourselves this question: where is the market failure that we are trying to address? The Government agencies and the taxpayers' money should not be used to displace the market mechanism and the general workings of the market.

So, anybody, be it in this particular sector or any other sector, if they would like to get help from the economic agencies, they can always contact Enterprise Singapore, they can always look at the various schemes that the Government has to help our companies to grow.

As to your third question, that is best left to the commercial arrangements. It is not possible, and neither do I think is right, for the Government to intervene in the commercial arrangements between different companies and different games developers.

I understand where the Member is coming from but I think there is a market mechanism that can work and I will be very careful to intervene, to disrupt or displace the market mechanism.

Mr Deputy Speaker, as the Minister was sharing about how we are developing the e-sports market, it is very exciting, but I cannot help but also worry about the announcement that WHO made last year that has classified gaming disorder as a disease. I am just wondering, just like the way we were developing the casinos, what are we doing here in terms of combating gaming disorders and addiction, as we alongside develop this e-sports area?

Mr Deputy Speaker, Sir, with any new technology, any new games, as Ms Anthea Ong said, it comes with associated dangers and there will always be a certain, albeit small proportion who might get addicted to such things.

So, this is where MSF together with the National Addictions Management Service or what we call NAMS, is working closely to monitor this issue. It is not exactly the same as the e-sports that we are talking about. We are talking about another part of the spectrum, which, of course, we are concerned about if there are such things. There are help channels available. We are also working with the schools to make sure that people who get involved in electronic games are properly guided and they maintain a certain sense of discipline, so that they do not get into trouble at all.

Like many of these addictions, the best thing for us is to invest our resources in prevention rather than just post-issue management.