Having recognised Candy Crush and Clash of Clans in the early days as potentials, International Mobile Gaming Awards (IMGA) is now coming to Malaysia to discover by hosting the first-ever mobile games competition in Southeast Asia on 8 November 2016. The event is made possible with the collaboration of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC).

Hasnul Hadi Samsudin, Director of Creative Content & Technology division at MDEC said, “We are thrilled to play host to this global event and we are proud to partner with IMGA. This collaboration is another testament to Malaysia’s commitment to become the leading ASEAN hub for games development and we hope that this event will raise more awareness on the quality of our local talents including the robust regional and local games industry.”

Coming on the heels of IMGA celebrating their 12th annual awards ceremony in San Francisco, IMGA SEA awards will mark the first year that the awards are handed out in Southeast Asia, recognising talents from the fast growing and blooming markets of the region.

Commenting on the new event, Maarten Noyons, Founder of the IMGA said, “Southeast Asia is rightly held up around the world as a hotbed of mobile gaming talent, showing tremendous download and revenue growth year-on-year. As all eyes look to Asia, we are proud to bring IMGA here to celebrate this creative and exciting industry, and can’t wait to see what we ultimately unveil from the community during our ceremony event.”

The call for entries is now open. Malaysian mobile games studios, indie developers, publishers involved in any aspect of the creation of mobile games are invited to submit their game until 30 September 2016 on sea.imgawards.com/submit-your-game. After an online pre-selection, the panel will select the winners during the final judging session in an intensive multi-day private roundtable held in Penang in early November. Winners will be announced on 8th November and listed online.