This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on March 25, 2024 - March 31, 2024

Growing up, Hasnul Hadi Samsudin’s life was like something out of a typical 1980s movie — cycling to the arcade with friends, being influenced by movies like Ghostbusters, and wearing the Sony Walkman everywhere because it looked cool.

“You know Stranger Things? That was pretty much my life,” says Hasnul, who is head of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s PlayStation Studios Malaysia, drawing parallels between his life and that seen in the hit Netflix series.

He had an American-style upbringing as he lived in the US in the 1980s when his father was studying for his PhD there. This meant that he witnessed the early years of technology and gaming. Hasnul’s journey started with the Atari 2600 home video game console, followed by a slew of Sony gaming consoles and devices, until today.

“These devices were captivating to me. I was so interested in them. I wanted to open up the Sony Walkman to see how it was built and maybe build one of my own one day.

“This train of thought shaped my decision to further my studies with an electrical engineering degree at Northwestern University [in Evanston, Illinois]. And a funny story … my entrance essay was about my love for the Sony Walkman.”

But life had other plans for him. When Hasnul graduated from university in 1996, Malaysia was an exciting country to be in as it was undergoing a phase of rapid development, despite the onset of the Asian financial crisis.

Former prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had plans to transition Malaysia from the industrial age to the information age, with emphasis on digital development. It was the height of country’s progress, with the Petronas Twin Towers on track to clinching the title of the tallest building in the world then.

Having pursued his tertiary education on a government scholarship, the pull to come home and contribute to the nation was strong for Hasnul. Just then, Mahathir mooted the idea of the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) and along with it, the Multimedia Development Corporation (MDC, currently known as Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation [MDEC]) to take the country into the digital age.

Against that backdrop, Hasnul developed an interest in e-commerce and web development landscapes, and this landed him a role on the MDC team as a borderless marketing executive. “This cemented my interest in digital content,” he says.

He served at MDC for 16 years, working his way up the organisation to become the head of MSC Malaysia’s Animation and Creative Content Centre (MaC3) from 2008 to 2010.

By then, Hasnul’s focus had shifted to digital content. At that time, the MSC collaborated with Silicon Graphics International to build a virtual reality (VR) centre in Malaysia and he was part of the team that grew this division.

“We were always doing innovative things and creating awareness about it. With VR, we brought in government agencies, schools and everything in between to give them an idea of the possibilities that can be harnessed, such as real-time 3D content, not just for play but also when making enterprise or government decisions,” he says.

“We built things like Putrajaya in VR, even before Putrajaya was built, so town planning could be done. We also captured the whole of Kuala Lumpur in 3D and at that time, one of the biggest issues was that Dataran Merdeka kept getting flooded, and with the data [we had], we were able to make better planning around how to mitigate floods. I think that was one of the reasons why the SMART (Stormwater Management and Road Tunnel) tunnel was created.”

Malaysia began attracting foreign investments, another focus of MDC then. Companies started setting up shop here to work with the local talent pool, motivating Hasnul to delve further into digital content, animation, gaming and visual effects.

He then moved to Rhythm & Hues Malaysia, a multiple Academy Award-winning film production studio specialising in visual effects and computer animation for feature films and television commercials. Hasnul remained active in the creative animation ecosystem, doing consulting work and holding the deputy president’s post at the Association of Post Production, Animation and Creative Content Malaysia and being a board member of Malaysia’s Film Development Corporation (Finas).

Delving even deeper in the creative industry, he served as creative adviser for several companies for over a decade, before returning to MDEC as director of the creative content and technologies division and subsequently becoming vice-president of the digital creative content division.

Hasnul believes his career path was predestined, especially since his interest in the gaming sphere did not waver over the decades. “Even within MDEC, a lot of what I did [then] involved the ecosystem because of my love and passion for games,” he shares.

“I always took the opportunity to help game companies grow and because of that, I sat down with these companies and immersed myself in them and the industry, and that allowed me to have the right understanding, awareness and network skills to prepare me for the role I’m in right now.”

His vast experience led him to take on his current role as head of PlayStation Studios Malaysia just over three years ago. The studio opened in 2020 fully remote, with the physical studio set up a little over a year ago.

The studio continues to grow and hire locally, says Hasnul, who has contributed to the recent hit games launched by Insomniac Games such as Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. “Locally, we continue to work with education partners to nurture and invest in upcoming talent and help boost the general gaming landscape in Malaysia,” he says.

In 2014, MDEC’s then CEO Datuk Dr Yasmin Mahmood asked Hasnul to rejoin the corporation to build and grow the gaming industry in Malaysia. At that time, Sony Interactive and PlayStation Studio were open to working with local independent game developers such as Passion Republic.

“This gave a lot of motivation and encouragement to other studios, with them believing that they can do it too.”

Hasnul was tasked to bring in opportunities to Malaysia and to put the country on the global gaming stage, and he did just that at events such as the Tokyo Game Show and Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

“It allowed us to create awareness of the country’s capabilities and what we’re trying to do. I think that helped a lot in attracting the interest of not just investors from overseas, but also internal stakeholders, from the government to private equity and venture capital companies and other financiers,” he explains.

“Schools and institutions also started to come on board, saying ‘why don’t we train people and give them the right knowledge for them to do well in the local industry?’.”

Gaming companies have always been drawn to the country’s creative, young and passionate talent, but these individuals are still diamonds in the rough.

“This is where we can work together [with the ecosystem] to make sure that they come to the level of expectations that we have. One of the challenges that we have is finding senior talent, because as a region, we’re not known for AAA (Triple-A) game development.”

“What needs to be done is to make the gap smaller, either when they enter college, university or technical and vocational schools, so that they already have some understanding and skill to be able to have the right capabilities to do what we’re doing now.

“It’s a perennial thing. Everybody says there’s not enough training, there’s not enough industry exposure. But I think the industry works very closely together with MDEC, and the Malaysian industry has grown tremendously over the years, especially within the government.”

PlayStation Studios Malaysia is working closely with The One Academy as it is considered one of the top five art and animation academies in the world. Hasnul says one of the areas the industry needs to grow is motion capture animation and performance capture animation, which is what the PlayStation Studios Malaysia team predominantly handles.

“We’re actually working with them to elevate the course curriculum and are building a motion capture stage in their college. After that, we can get the students to actually start experiencing working within a motion capture environment, which will hopefully bring them to the next level,” he explains.

He adds that over the years, the Malaysian Qualifications Agency has been attentive and receptive to industry feedback, to the point that it has allowed industry players to become part of the faculty as tutors, giving students direct access to the industry.

“This is important because universities may not approach the industry for help and industries may not have all the resources they need to [share expertise], so this will help fill the experience gap within faculties, and students get to understand what is happening in the industry.”

Talent is key to PlayStation Studios Malaysia’s business as well. Hasnul says the focus is to make sure that the country has the right creative talent to do what it wants to achieve. “The game development industry is a very hard one to be in. It’s actually one of the biggest industries in the world right now.

“What we do is we work with universities to find art and animation talent. Then, we help them grow this talent so that they can work on some of the things we work on. PlayStation Studios works on some of the biggest, high-quality games – the best Metacritic games of the year.”

Metacritic aggregates music, game, TV and movie reviews from the leading critics.

“So, the expectation of the talent pool is very high and together with schools in Malaysia and in the region, we look at how we can uplift the talent pool to be ready not just for PlayStation Studios Malaysia, but the region. As the region grows, we grow too.”

Being a Malaysia Digital status company, PlayStation Studios Malaysia continuously works with government agencies such as MDEC and the Malaysian Investment Development Authority to enhance their collaborations and business in Malaysia and around the world. For example, if the necessary talent cannot be acquired in Malaysia, these agencies facilitate its import.

But more importantly, Hasnul says MDEC has created a great ecosystem. He highlights the LEVEL UP @ Schools programme that aims to create awareness and interest in the game development ecosystem. It was introduced in 2016 to nurture future talents and encourage enrolment in the game development fields at the tertiary level.

Another is the Krea8tif! @ Schools programme, which is an animation programme to inspire and nurture creativity among young Malaysians. Introduced in 2019, it educates and fosters interest in animation while encouraging enrolment in creative content courses at the tertiary level.

Both these programmes come under The Creativity @ Schools competition, a yearly competition organised by MDEC, which is part of its overall Creativity @ Schools programme. The programme was introduced to inspire and nurture creativity among young Malaysians and foster interest in animation, visual effects and game design, leading towards encouraging enrolment in creative content courses at tertiary levels while planting seeds for new intellectual property generation.

Collaborations with studios such as PlayStation Studios Malaysia, explains Hasnul, means that once the winners have been announced, they can start to build their own games and pitch it. They will then go through a mentorship programme. PlayStation Studios Malaysia has a team that mentors some of these students, helping them understand what is needed to land a good job in the field.

“I think it’s important that [the journey] starts at a young age and having the awareness of doing this. It benefits all that want to be in game development because in the future, not only will they be game consumers but also talent and creators that can actually be making games on our platform.

“It’s really important for us to see that happening in the ecosystem. And that’s one of the reasons why Sony Interactive has decided to invest in Malaysia.”

As part of PlayStation Studio’s value creation, studios all around the world work together and get involved in games being released globally. Hasnul says while the perception is that the country’s talent pool is still in its early stages, developers, animators and artists from Malaysia have already been credited on PlayStation Studio’s games.

“They’re very happy to get their name on PlayStation Studio’s games. It’s a really big feat for them.

“Most of our games are games of the year. We want to be part of that, to contribute to that. And we want everyone to know that if they need a game development partner, Malaysia is where they think of.

“That is important to us, to me. For me, that vision is making sure that at the tip of their tongues and minds, Malaysia is there and for us to deliver the quality, creativity and innovation that is expected in other parts of the world.”

But this vision does come with challenges. Hasnul observes that parents are now more open to seeing their children playing games and are taking active responsibility for what they consume. The question is “what’s next?” Do these children remain as consumers or can they be developers themselves?

This is where the industry and the government can show the opportunities that are available. “It’s not just art animation; nor is it just game design. It’s a full-fledged industry, meaning there are other business elements such as marketing, finance and legal requirements that are needed to run a business. Game development is still a business — a highly creative, innovative and high technology business,” he says.

“This is where the challenge is, to get everyone to understand that this could be a great opportunity for people. It’s a slight challenge, but I think it’s something that we can fix.”

The local game development industry is still nascent, and Hasnul believes that it will take another five to 10 years for the industry to mature. This is also based on his experience and observations of how countries such as Canada and other emerging countries evolved over the years.

“With the current studios in the ecosystem like Virtuos, Larian Studios, Double Eleven and many others, I think we have a great chance to be part of the global ecosystem,” he stresses.

At the end of February, it was reported that Sony would be cutting about 900 jobs in its gaming division. The company cited changes in the industry as a reason for the restructuring and that the cuts would occur in the Americas, Japan, Europe, the Middle East, Africa and the Asia-Pacific region.

When asked about the fate of the Malaysian studio, Sony Interactive Entertainment and PlayStation Studios were unable to comment beyond what was announced on the company’s official blog post.

“We have made the extremely hard decision to announce our plan to commence a reduction of our overall headcount globally by about 8% or about 900 people, subject to local law and consultation processes. Employees across the globe, including our studios, are impacted,” outgoing Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO Jim Ryan wrote in the blog.

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