KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 8 ― Communications and Multimedia Minister Gobind Singh Deo announced today that electronics giant Sony will open a gaming studio in Malaysia.

He said the studio will be open sometime next year with the aim of making Malaysia a central gaming hub for South East Asia and eventually worldwide.

"In the coming months, Sony Interactive Entertainment Worldwide Studios (SIE WWS) will be establishing a studio right here in Malaysia.

"It will be part of the SIE WWS family of global studios and be part of the network developing worldwide exclusives titles for the PlayStation universe,” Gobind said during the closing ceremony of Level Up KL 2019 a regional platform for game developers organised by Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation in Bangsar.

Gobind said the government supports the gaming industry as it's growing and will form an integral part of the economy in the years to come.

He hoped that in the years to come more investors local and foreign will make Malaysia their choice to invest in the gaming industry.

So far not many details can be revealed about SIE WWS studio as Gobind said the government needs to set up policies to govern the industry.

"There will be more details revealed in hopefully the next two to three weeks as we work on setting up policies for the industry.

"Subsequent to this we are trying to set up gaming hub here in KL. I'll make an announcement soon but before announcing anything we want to make sure that we have global companies looking st Malaysia as a first choice to set up or relocating their studios here,” said the MP for Puchong.

SIE WWS will be given incentives in the form of grants. Gobind said different companies have different needs and hence thus far can't fully reveal the extent of the partnerships between the government and SIE WWS.

"What we do is we reach out and see what their asks are and if we can comply with that we will do so.

"Right now it's a work in progress but the fact Sony wants to set up a studio here is acknowledgment of the fact that Malaysia should've looked at when making investments in this industry,” Gobind said.

Apart from the studio, Gobind reiterated that his ministry is working closely with the Finance and Youth ministries to make this deal a reality.