Issue 67

Digital content is currently one of the promising industries in Thailand, especially in the gaming sector.

Thailand’s digital content is a booming economy. In 2015 the market value of the digital content industry amounted to US$353 million (12 billion baht), with exports reaching some US$44 million (1.5 billion baht), according to Chatchai Khunpitiluk, who was addressing the Bangkok International Digital Content Festival 2017 on March 8.

The acting specialist assistant to the director of the Digital Economy Promotion Agency (DEPA), Ministry of Digital Economy and Society, forecasts that the animation market will expand by 5% in 2017, with the gaming market growing in excess of 22%.

MAD Virtual Reality Studio, is just one company that demonstrates the industry’s bright future. Founded in 2015, it spent 13 months producing the horror game ARAYA, which was launched the following year to positive feedback from players worldwide.

Set in an abandoned hospital, the Thai female ghost horror game has now achieved internationally acclaim with its teaser viewed 50 million times on YouTube.

“Thailand is outstanding in digital content production,” said Alan Archapilasa, founder and chief executive officer of MAD VRS. “Foreign customers were surprised when they saw our game for the first time as they thought foreign countries such as Japan and the US would outsource graphic and animation works to Thailand. But, now Thailand can produce a game which is compatible with visual reality technology.”

Now ARAYA is sold worldwide to the US, Germany, China, Japan and South Korea.

Apart from its popularity with gamers around the world, ARAYA also received the Excellent Game of the Year prize from the Bangkok International Digital Content Festival 2017.

In addition to developing games, MAD VRS produces mobile game applications for entertainment featuring popular stars and celebrities, and B2G business innovations for state agencies.

Archapilasa has great confidence that the company will work on the success of ARAYA to create more projects that he believes will be successful on the world market.

“We are confident that our new products will get very good feedback from people worldwide again. This is because we have already proved that our capability is now widely accepted and it is clearly second to none,” he said.

For more information, please visit: www. madvrstudio.com

Photo courtesy of MAD Virtual Reality Studio Co., Ltd

Words by Patcharee Taedangpetch