Our Compulsory New Year Post: Bye-Bye 2008, Hello 2009

December 31, 2008 by Chapree

Domo-kun appreciates each one of you for visiting Multiplay.

Looking back, 2008 has been a very good year for Malaysian gaming scene. I listed down couple of ups and downs moment of the scene throughout this year.

The Good

• Game launches on the rise : Metal Gear Solid 4, Race Driver GRID, Red Alert 3, Winning Eleven 2009 for PS3 and World of Warcraft:Wrath of the Lich King showed the world that our market still matters.
• Sony put official stamps on PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3 for Malaysia with huge launch ceremonies and full technical support.
• More general gaming events was held compared to previous years such as ACGC’08, GAMEX’08 and GameAxis Live!
• Call of Duty 4 community established themselves in such a short time, to the extend being selected as one of WGT Malaysia’s official games.
• Games Monster puts PlayStation 3 on competitive scene with their continues PS3 tournament series.
• The annual WCG Malaysia kick-off was boosted by the first ever WCG Asian Championship qualifier featuring three of its official games.
• ESWC Malaysia back in action and paved the way to Malaysia’s biggest eSports achievement yet.
• Team Malaysia returned home from WCG Asian Championship with 1 gold, 2 bronze and 2nd place in overall standings.
• Kingsurf made the country proud after receiving silver medal in DoTA at ESWC Grand Finals, basically the biggest achievement ever made by a Malaysian team on international level.

Teh Bad

• John Galt Games Malaysia closed down, became yet another causalities of local game development industry’s hard reality.
• Closure of Championship Gaming Series, brought down with them local franchise - KL Taufan at the very wrong moment, who just about to receive a grand lifeline.
• Team Malaysia returned empty handed from yet another WCG Grand Finals.

Frankly said, 2009 is going to be a very tough year judging from the current global economic condition. Expect events to be downscaled and some might even be canceled. You can say that things are going to be very contradicting to what we have enjoyed for the past year. That being said, I do hope I will be wrong though.

To everybody that celebrating New Year Eve, be safe wherever you may be. May 2009 brought us more prosperity regardless of the current global economic status. On behalf of the whole Lowyat.NET family, have a very merry and happy new year!

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