PSX Malaysia

I've had the pleasure of attending an event in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. What event you ask? The very first South East Asia PlayStation Experience!

PlayStation Experience has always been an event exclusive to the US. The last three years saw it held annually in the US; twice in California and once in Nevada. But for some odd reason that no one saw coming, the fourth PSX was held in Kuala Lumpur thereby being the first 'international' PSX as well as the first SEA PSX. A fifth one is still being held in America this year so don't you worry about that folks!

Considering this is a first time the event has been taken overseas and the first time such an international gaming event was held in Malaysia, you can assume that the experience was pretty vanilla. I've never attended a PSX but this time was different!

Here is a list of the games mentioned to be present:

I didn't join any sort of media line mostly because I didn't mention anything to staff beforehand and the fact that I'm an amateur writer for a blog that isn't even my own. So let me break down the event for you, from the perspective of a regular human being. The entrance fee is a big, whopping FREE.

I got there to wait in-line at 7am. You can tell from the picture above. It was still dark out but there were a hell of a lot of people. Sort of like what I imagined WonFes would be like, just not as bad. There was a single line stretched about 3 blocks back as far as I could tell but thankfully, I was near the entrance. The first 300 people could apparently receive goodie bags and so, I was banking on the hope that I might receive it.

As you can see from the picture above, it started getting bright out. This was around 8am I believe and we barely moved much but moving at all was a blessing in disguise. People were sat around playing their phones or cards; there was even a group that got McD delivered to them. I heard a rumour that the person at the very front of the line got there at 3am.

We began to move through a zig zag fencing set up to control the long queue while people were entering the building. I thought people had begun entering a waiting area to the hall but upon closer inspection, it was obvious that another controlled cue had begun forming within the lobby of the building to await for the eventual opening of the doors so everyone could enter.

It was at this point that the line stopped. It was here that the cruel 2 hours began ticking by. I went from standing to squatting to randomly spying on other people. The blessed people who managed to enter could sit on the clean, tiled floor in an air-conditioned room while me and the other several hundred people stood outside.

Our waiting involved watching people with priority passes skip right through the lines. I knew you couldn't buy such passes (I tried) and you could only win them in sweepstakes and take a single friend. But I saw families, with children too young to bother about gaming and probably wouldn't even remember this event. Toddlers carry lollipops entered in the priority lane with a family size of seven! I was salty but rightfully so. Alas, such is how things worked.

The gates were supposed to open at 10am. I got to the above point (right outside the entry doorway) at around 11.30am. That isn't because of the queue in front of me. The line began moving only at around 11am. I understand that delays can happen for whatever reason but delays like this shouldn't happen all the time. I was a little upset but before I entered, I was given the free goodie bag! All was good.

The event was held over two floors but relatively small ones all things considered. It was absolutely congested with people and lines to play any and all games were about 20 minutes at the least.

From the images above, the event appeared like a club if no one told me any different. The giant Playstation logos on the stage with the blue lighting certainly set the mood but a dark floor with bright game screens everywhere was definitely jarring to say the least. Although, admittedly, this was what I expected. I've read enough posts regarding events to expect this much.

Upon remembering the floor map outside (they did not hand any sort of map out; they didn't need to as the event was small enough), I bee-lined for the merchandise booth. I wasn't planning on getting anything in particular but I wanted to get an idea of what exclusive items were offered.

This was basically the shop area. Quite small but easily manageable. There weren't many people concerned with merchandise from the get-go so I could squeeze to the front to grab a look at the merchandising menu. They were selling Funko Pop figures of various characters, PS4 games that were already out as well as preorders that could be made, gaming accessories such as the PS4 pro controller, trinkets like blindboxes and of course, Playstation apparel.

While nothing caught my interest, I do have to admit that the mini display area was a nice touch. They didn't have much to display considering the fact that these authorised vendors don't actually sell many types of display figures but what they did was cute. I especially like the Kingdom Hearts figurine (I assume Funko Pop) collection. It was cute.

P.S. I will never buy Funko Pops because of the sheer price to quality ratio. I'd rather fork up a little more and get a proper Nendoroid.

Merchandising aside, I decided to survey the floors but the amount of people made it difficult to even get my bearings. Collecting photos for the blog proved difficult and I could only manag a couple of dark shots around the floor and of the games. To be fair, I am a beginner photographer. I should also mention that I ventured through the event without any of my fellow authors.

The giant screen in the centre of everything displayed a timer ticking down to the next conference. The first conference was about GT Sport presented by the producer (I think) and lasted for about 15 minutes. I'm not a big fan of sports game so I honestly didn't pay much attention but at the end of it all, a neat thing happened.

It was his birthday so they served him cake! It was a surprise and everyone cheered. It was a fun time and soon after he was done cutting it did the timer come back up to tick down to the next conference.

At this point, I found myself waiting in line for a game I wanted to try out since it was announced: Dragon Ball FighterZ. There were 3 consoles set up and the line was relatively short so I joined in.

After waiting in line for some people who kept pressing 'retry' on the demo because of a lack of proper supervision, I finally got my chance to play it. The most striking thing wasn't the vibrant lighting in an abyss of darkness, it was the fact that the event decided to lock the controller's cord distance to about 2 inches from the screen. This was about a 28" screen and being that close to it in this sort of lighting condition was both bad for my eyes and an awkward experience.

The game itself was a blast. I admit, I am biased but Dragon Ball played very well. It was smooth, striking and fun. The hits felt hard and the energy blasts looked realistic (as realistic as a ki blast could be).

The demo was for a single round that lasted around 2-3 minutes (depending on your skill level I suppose) but I was done with it rather quick. It's definitely a title I was going to preorder but actually getting my hands on it was satisfying enough for me to lock-in my decision.

The two pictures above show a fraction of the amount of people who were still lining up. I reckon the poor lad at the most back of the line had to wait 4 hours to get in. I certainly did.

And I left an hour after entering.

Really, lining up and playing game demos in this environment was not particularly fun. I was sweaty, it was hot and steamy, people were just squeezing everywhere without a care in the world. I waited for 4 hours but I saw it worthwhile to leave after spending an hour there. After all, aside from Dragon Ball, I really didn't need to try games to know I wanted to get them.

I had my goodie bag, I tried a game, I listened to a conference and I was told that my coupon for MYR30 off a PS4 game could be used outside of the event at participating stores. I honestly didn't feel any need to stay in. I reckon I'd get involved with PSX from the comfort of my own room next time.