Local gaming venture also satisfies players' sweet tooth

'OSS' is a mobile game by Rising Soft, a local developer, that lets players redeem points for doughnuts and ice cream.

Thai businessmen, including an heir of the Maleenonts, the major shareholders of Channel 3, have joined with a Japanese businessman to set up a digital entertainment firm to capitalise on the growing gaming market in Thailand.

Voravat Maleenont, the eldest son of Pravit Maleenont, director of BEC World Group, which operates Channel 3, has formed Hot Head Co with Wiboon Leeratanakajorn and a Japanese executive from Lynx Investment Co.

The venture, in which the Thai side holds 60% of the shares, makes its debut with the launch of Order of the Seventh Sphere (OSS), claiming to be the first Thai mobile game that allows gamers to get points and redeem them for food such as doughnuts and ice cream.

"Thailand is a major gaming market in Southeast Asia, but it is rare to see Thais make a game that is successful," said Mr Wiboon, managing director of Hot Head Co and founder of Search Group, a content production firm.

Wiroj Assawarungsi, chief marketing officer of Hot Head, said that to reach the goal of becoming a leading Asean digital entertainment provider, the company will source licences of popular games from Japan, Taiwan and South Korea, as well as develop games itself.

Besides creating its own games to sell in local and foreign markets, Hot Head will seek more joint ventures with game developers and provide marketing support for the venture.

The idea is to employ the strong business network of the company's executives in entertainment and media.

Mr Wiroj said Hot Head plans to expand its gaming products to e-sport exhibitions, sponsorships, virtual reality arcades and media streaming.

The key product, OSS, is a real-time tactical role-playing game that features immersive graphics.

OSS was developed by Rising Soft Co, an award winner at the Global Mobile App Summit & Awards held by the GSM Association.

This game is also a pioneer of using game-based marketing through a partnership with Mudman Plc, the local operator of Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin-Robbins.

"OSS gamers can play and earn points to redeem for doughnuts or ice cream at the physical shops," Mr Wiroj said.

According to Statista's Digital Market Outlook, the mobile game market in Thailand in 2018 is set to reach US$331 million (10.8 billion baht).

Thailand ranks in the world's top 15 in terms of mobile revenue in 2018 and has about 9.8 million mobile game players, Mr Wiroj said.

Another source, research firm Newzoo, also ranks Thailand 20th biggest in the global game market in term of spending in 2017, with overall game revenue (PC, mobile, etc) of $597.2 million and 18.3 million users.

Ramin Salhani, a game producer and co-founder of Rising Soft, a Bangkok-based game developer, said the company spent four years developing OSS.

Target gamers are in the range of 13 to 35 years old. The product can serve as game-based marketing for brands that would like to tap millennial spending.

In the first 24 hours after opening for download, OSS was downloaded 10,000 times, making it one of the top five new free games in the Google Play Store.

So far, about 5,000 gamers have redeemed points for food.

Mr Wiroj said that in the next two years the venture expects to enter augmented and virtual reality games.