State of Gaming Industry in Indonesia. (Interview by Toge Production Founder)

[AruanaRiva]

This thread is to give a bit insights of the states of gaming industry in Indonesia. One of the biggest nations in South East Asia which currently is experiencing growth in gaming industries.



The interview comes from The Lazy Mondays channel.(Indonesian gaming channel)

Kris Antoni, The Founder and CEO of Toge Production(Developers of Coffee Talk, When the Past was Around and Upcoming A Space of the Unbound). Indonesian publishing and developing game company come to the show and share insight on the current Indonesia gaming space.

Home - Toge Productions

www.togeproductions.com

https://id.linkedin.com/in/kris-antoni-hadiputra-a675b819

Indonesia gaming industry is growing year by year and projected to hit 1.49 billion Dollar in 2021 which is another increase from 2020(1.29 billion Dollar in 2020) https://en.tempo.co/read/1510981/indonesias-gaming-industry-potential-exceeds-rp28-6-tn-govt

While the Industry is growing, Kris does mention that gaming industry especially local developers are still facing severe problem in the country which come in several factors that hopefully in the future can solved.

1. Lack of governmental support.
It is only very recently that Indonesian government starting to recognize that gaming is a growing industry that is worth supporting which means that Indonesia gaming industry will still require much longer time before they can compete with many other nations around them. However based on Kris interview, he seems very positive as he believe that if before without any substantial support from governmental bodies, Indonesia gaming industry is able to grow. There is only good thing if it more support is given there.

2. Not being King on their own nation.
Kris also revealed info that their own products is highly dependent toward worldwide market and on extreme level. 99% of Toge Production games is sold outside Indonesia while only around 1% is sold inside Indonesia. This lead to the company simply need to prioritize outside market first like providing English Sub/Dub first before they can give attention toward Indonesian own subtitle as the financial cost simply is more beneficial to prioritize outside Indonesian market.
On the other hand Indonesian gaming market is hold strongly by global brands and being smaller companies, it is very hard to compete with the giant corporation such as Sony, Nintendo, Valve, MS, etc when they had huge workforce, talent and experience.

3. Mobile is still King
Toge Production is company that publish and develop games for Dedicated gaming platform such as Consoles/Handhelds or PC. Which sadly in the case of Indonesia is the minority market. Due to Economic reasons, and low barrier of entry for Mobiles, Mobile is the majority platform for the nation. This lead to most of developers in Indonesia to produce products for mobile platform.

4, Piracy Ahoy and Lack of Public Awareness on Gaming industry.
It is also mentioned that in Indonesia there is still severe lack of care or respect toward gaming industry. Many games is pirated the moment it is released and there is still the perception that game lack value and it is cheap to produce which gamers should get all of them for free but need to be utmost quality like Genshin or Free Fire. Also the lack of proper law to protect game companies over piracy and any copyright infringement has lead to many developer/companies unable to release their product and depend on local economy purchasing power.

5. The huge interest in grassroot indie developers in Indonesia
With how Internet has connected the world, it open up market so game developers now from each part of the world is now able to reach other sides of the world as well. Indonesia is Islands Nation where the development of the nations is still uneven. Toge Production themselves have recently launch their own TGFI(Toge Game Fund Initiative) Where they will meet up with aspiring indie devs and provide support and help so they can publish their games. This initiative is hopefully will be able to help many aspiring indie devs in Indonesia to enjoy gaming development as well as providing them avenue to earn money as reward of their effort.

Through the interview, while it seems it is still going to be a far journey before Indonesia can compete with other nations on gaming industry, hopefully with more publishers and gaming developers growing in Indonesia. We will be able to see even more games that is made by indonesia devs to hit worldwide market.

 

[Terrell]

I'm glad to hear there's not just a market developing in Indonesia, but also strong advocacy by existing devs to grow its place in the industry's game production and resolve challenges to market growth.

 

[AruanaRiva]

I'm glad to hear there's not just a market developing in Indonesia, but also strong advocacy by existing devs to grow its place in the industry's game production and resolve challenges to market growth.

Well. While it certainly is a great thing that Toge Production actually took action on their own hand trying to grow the gaming scene here, in the end private business had their limit.

From the interview it seems they are running 6 indie game atm through their funding program. But to actually grow gaming industry in Indonesia government would need to be more proactive and actually support the industries. So it remain to be seen how far the industry can grow there.

 

[ChiaSeeds1302]

This thread in to give a bit insights of the states of gaming industry in Indonesia. One of the biggest nations in South East Asia which currently is experiencing growth in gaming industries.



The interview comes from The Lazy Mondays channel.(Indonesian gaming channel)

Kris Antoni, The Founder and CEO of Toge Production(Developers of Coffee Talk, When the Past was Around and Upcoming A Space of the Unbound). Indonesian publishing and developing game company come to the show and share insight on the current Indonesia gaming space.

Home - Toge Productions

www.togeproductions.com

https://id.linkedin.com/in/kris-antoni-hadiputra-a675b819

Indonesia gaming industry is growing year by year and projected to hit 1.49 billion Dollar in 2021 which is another increase from 2020(1.29 billion Dollar in 2020) https://en.tempo.co/read/1510981/indonesias-gaming-industry-potential-exceeds-rp28-6-tn-govt

While the Industry is growing, Kris does mention that gaming industry especially local developers are still facing severe problem in the country which come in several factors that hopefully in the future can solved.

1. Lack of governmental support.
It is only very recently that Indonesian government starting to recognize that gaming is a growing industry that is worth supporting which means that Indonesia gaming industry will still require much longer time before they can compete with many other nations around them. However based on Kris interview, he seems very positive as he believe that if before without any substantial support from governmental bodies, Indonesia gaming industry is able to grow. There is only good thing if it more support is given there.

2. Not being King on their own nation.
Kris also revealed info that their own products is highly dependent toward worldwide market and on extreme level. 99% of Toge Production games is sold outside Indonesia while only around 1% is sold inside Indonesia. This lead to the company simply need to prioritize outside market first like providing English Sub/Dub first before they can give attention toward Indonesian own subtitle as the financial cost simply is more beneficial to prioritize outside Indonesian market.
On the other hand Indonesian gaming market is hold strongly by global brands and being smaller companies, it is very hard to compete with the giant corporation such as Sony, Nintendo, Valve, MS, etc when they had huge workforce, talent and experience.

3. Mobile is still King
Toge Production is company that publish and develop games for Dedicated gaming platform such as Consoles/Handhelds or PC. Which sadly in the case of Indonesia is the minority market. Due to Economic reasons, and low barrier of entry for Mobiles, Mobile is the majority platform for the nation. This lead to most of developers in Indonesia to produce products for mobile platform.

4, Piracy Ahoy and Lack of Public Awareness on Gaming industry.
It is also mentioned that in Indonesia there is still severe lack of care or respect toward gaming industry. Many games is pirated the moment it is released and there is still the perception that game lack value and it is cheap to produce which gamers should get all of them for free but need to be utmost quality like Genshin or Free Fire. Also the lack of proper law to protect game companies over piracy and any copyright infringement has lead to many developer/companies unable to release their product and depend on local economy purchasing power.

5. The huge interest in grassroot indie developers in Indonesia
With how Internet has connected the world, it open up market so game developers now from each part of the world is now able to reach other sides of the world as well. Indonesia is Islands Nation where the development of the nations is still uneven. Toge Production themselves have recently launch their own TGFI(Toge Game Fund Initiative) Where they will meet up with aspiring indie devs and provide support and help so they can publish their games. This initiative is hopefully will be able to help many aspiring indie devs in Indonesia to enjoy gaming development as well as providing them avenue to earn money as reward of their effort.

Through the interview, while it seems it is still going to be a far journey before Indonesia can compete with other nations on gaming industry, hopefully with more publishers and gaming developers growing in Indonesia. We will be able to see even more games that is made by indonesia devs to hit worldwide market.

Very good and insightful find AruanaRiva

As someone from Indonesia, personally, points #3 and #4 hit extremely hard in the heart lmao. My first gaming devices were a modded DS and a modded Wii and I can remember I had a year where my gaming was primarily on mobile with Cookie Run LINE (Does anybody remember Cookie Run LINE ;-; ?). I'd like to say further into point #4 that, from personal experience, purchasable modded games are usually extremely cheap. A modded DS game was Rp 10.000 (~$0.70) and a modded Wii game was Rp 15.000 - Rp 20.000 (~$1.50) from where I was

 

[AruanaRiva]

Very good and insightful find AruanaRiva

As someone from Indonesia, personally, points #3 and #4 hit extremely hard in the heart lmao. My first gaming devices were a modded DS and a modded Wii and I can remember I had a year where my gaming was primarily on mobile with Cookie Run LINE (Does anybody remember Cookie Run LINE ;-; ?). I'd like to say further into point #4 that, from personal experience, purchasable modded games are usually extremely cheap. A modded DS game was Rp 10.000 (~$0.70) and a modded Wii game was Rp 15.000 - Rp 20.000 (~$1.50) from where I was

Haha. Fellow Indonesian gamer is. But indeed. Piracy is still huge problem in indonesia.

I mean, you can simply went to the greenstore online shop and sees how rampant piracy is and how much it hurt the industry.

For example: PS4 software selling power in indonesia has been crippled due to how the console now is getting wildwest treatment due to piracy. Almost all online shop and even retail shop in Indonesia provide service to break the console so that it can be pirated.

Switch due to V1 version also has been facing some of those problem but due to the limited number of the consoles the software is still doing well which contrast heavily with how PS4 software is impacted where except for the biggest title, most of the nicher/smaller title has not been stock for most stores.

Until there is change of perspective and law to accomodate, i doubt there will be much change except on increase of middle income families that will be more open to support real game copies.

 

[ChiaSeeds1302]

Haha. Fellow Indonesian gamer is. But indeed. Piracy is still huge problem in indonesia.

I mean, you can simply went to the greenstore online shop and sees how rampant piracy is and how much it hurt the industry.

For example: PS4 software selling power in indonesia has been crippled due to how the console now is getting wildwest treatment due to piracy. Almost all online shop and even retail shop in Indonesia provide service to break the console so that it can be pirated.

Switch due to V1 version also has been facing some of those problem but due to the limited number of the consoles the software is still doing well which contrast heavily with how PS4 software is impacted where except for the biggest title, most of the nicher/smaller title has not been stock for most stores.

Until there is change of perspective and law to accomodate, i doubt there will be much change except on increase of middle income families that will be more open to support real game copies.

Oof the sentence I bolded from your reply I felt hard. Because it's true, most stores I go to, unless they are official game publisher stores, have console hacking services. And cheap as well. Hacking a console and getting 20 games from said console I find cost, at minimum, the same as one official game ($60)

Tbh, before seeing this thread, the gaming landscape in Indonesia I actually thought was a bit bleak. I've never heard of any console development in Indonesia, most people I see play PC/mobile, and even if they did, it was the PS3 and rarely, the XBOX360. So some are still stuck and only know the 7th generation. I hope that in the future generation, people in Indonesia are able to value official console games more.

 

[AruanaRiva]

Oof the sentence I bolded from your reply I felt hard. Because it's true, most stores I go to, unless they are official game publisher stores, have console hacking services. And cheap as well. Hacking a console and getting 20 games from said console I find cost, at minimum, the same as one official game ($60)

Tbh, before seeing this thread, the gaming landscape in Indonesia I actually thought was a bit bleak. I've never heard of any console development in Indonesia, most people I see play PC/mobile, and even if they did, it was the PS3 and rarely, the XBOX360. So some are still stuck and only know the 7th generation. I hope that in the future generation, people in Indonesia are able to value official console games more.

There has been improvement but it is part of path that all of developing countries experience there.

The more middle and rich income family is built, the more people will be more okay to support the gaming industry through legal means.

However thats also to say that if company whether local and outside wanted to really put a mark in Indonesia outside of F2P market will need to understand that the minimum salary of workers in capital of indonesia is around 250 dollars a month. So asking those people to pay 60 bucks or even 70 bucks for a single game is very expensive proposition.

Thats the main reason why PC is the dominant platform outside mobile in Indonesia due to ease of piracy and the number of cheaper game deals through Steam and free games deal through Epic.

Platform like Switch and PS is simply rich folks platform as they are able to pay premium price for the game and continue supporting those hobby even though as we see with how piracy is more or less a culture/dna now. Many rich families also seems to have zero qualm in pirating games as the mindset of gaming is not something important is still very rooted inside the mind of many Indonesians.

 

[ChiaSeeds1302]

There has been improvement but it is part of path that all of developing countries experience there.

The more middle and rich income family is built, the more people will be more okay to support the gaming industry through legal means.

However thats also to say that if company whether local and outside wanted to really put a mark in Indonesia outside of F2P market will need to understand that the minimum salary of workers in capital of indonesia is around 250 dollars a month. So asking those people to pay 60 bucks or even 70 bucks for a single game is very expensive proposition.

Thats the main reason why PC is the dominant platform outside mobile in Indonesia due to ease of piracy and the number of cheaper game deals through Steam and free games deal through Epic.

Platform like Switch and PS is simply rich folks platform as they are able to pay premium price for the game and continue supporting those hobby even though as we see with how piracy is more or less a culture/dna now. Many rich families also seems to have zero qualm in pirating games as the mindset of gaming is not something important is still very rooted inside the mind of many Indonesians.

Your last point was certainly true for my family for over a decade. Nail to the head true ;;@w@;;

The point of salary however I did not realize was that low. That would mean a ~30% of the salary cut for a new game, which is very high for just a single product. Thank you for raising that perspective, improvement will certainly come, just slowly as you said

 

[AruanaRiva]

Your last point was certainly true for my family for over a decade. Nail to the head true ;;@w@;;

The point of salary however I did not realize was that low. That would mean a ~30% of the salary cut for a new game, which is very high for just a single product. Thank you for raising that perspective, improvement will certainly come, just slowly as you said

Actually this is not only problem for Indonesia there. In South East Asia, other countries also faces the same problem there maybe except Singapore there especially regarding piracy and salaries.

However from the interview above there, Kris did mention that Indonesia is really late to the race there. Malaysia goverment or Singapore had given support since 2007 or around 15 years ago. While in Indonesia, it is the start of Jokowi era's around 2015 that there is some movement to give support to gaming industries. However u need to remember that those investment for me personally went to wrong idea.

Why? Because the only word that those government officials had is about "E-Sports" And the team to make money from competing rather than the idea about developers or publishers of those games.

It is just 2021.(Yup last year) That one of our most popular Minister finally show up and mention that Indonesia government will start to give more support to developers and publishers. So in this case, yeah still very far far away from other nations in SEA.(Also don't forget how many times gaming is still stigmatized by mass people in Indonesia. Remember how Mobile Legends will lead to being Evil children case lol?) The biggest block for Indonesia is cultural ones which will take times to change. From Anti gaming minds or piracy DNA. So it will require Government to actually goes hard in changing this perspective.

 

[Clay_ghost]

I guess i am echoing a lot of what's already discussed here.

Piracy will always be a thing in developing region or region that just have been recently developed.

Its only during the recent 15 years or so where its not cool to pirate in Singapore, Malaysia , Hong Kong , Taiwan , etc as major publishers started to invest , advertise ,officially sell and basically focus more on the local market. Oh localzaition of games helps too , we actually see a lot of Asia English/Chinese exclusive games that are not available in the west and those games sells.

As the average income level of the citizens increases and they can afford to spend more on such entertainment but it will take time before the rest of SEA catches up to even Malaysia's income level. Still Regional pricing helps, that's why PC gaming and Steam are popular.