Malaysian TV company Astro seeks partnerships with indie game developers

Indie game developers, you can now get a leg up if you’re looking to enter the Malaysian market. The country’s largest consumer media entertainment group, Astro, wants to work with you. Essentially a company that provides cable TV and internet access, among other things, Astro has already conquered television, radio, and publishing, and is now looking to enter the gaming vertical via its family-friendly Astro GO Play platform.

In line with Astro’s commitment to family-friendly entertainment, Astro GO Play is a mobile game platform targeted (for now) at children.

At the inaugural Astro #GOInnovate developer conference in Cyberjaya earlier this month, chief innovation officer Brian Lenz said that this move is a real chance for Astro to stop thinking about itself as a TV company or a radio business.

Vice president of future works at Astro Aditya Summanwar added: “We find that games is the best way [to do so], because games are personal to you. You can enjoy them on your own or as a family. And we have that relationship, knowledge of who these people are, when their free time is.”

Game devs aren’t forgotten

But Astro also wants to show it is passionate about content creators. Lenz said he believes great content is only made when content creators get rewarded for it. This means that Astro will also be getting down to the mission of monetizing content.

One of the games you can play on Astro GO Play now.

The biggest challenge it faces right now isn’t earning money, though. It’s actually letting game developers – in Malaysia and the region – know that it’s not just a Pay TV service anymore, or even a corporation that licenses its intellectual properties out for development. It’s ready and willing to bring original family-friendly games to an audience of a whopping 4.2M households via its Astro GO Play service.

Astro did have its own games before this. However, they were all centred around IP that the company owned. These games were developed by small outsource firms. As a result, Summanwar said people tend to be a bit reserved about bringing an original IP to the service provider to ask for funding.

See: Game devs, get ready to be part of Inmobi’s $25 million gaming fund

However, Astro does seem willing to compromise, probably because it knows where it stands. It’s a giant in certain arenas, but in gaming, it’s just starting out. Summanwar shared that there are several business models it could explore with game development partners, depending on the game dev’s appetite and what life stage the studio is at. These business models will also vary depending on where Astro and the studio are on their respective roadmaps.

Summanwar added: “I wouldn’t say there’s anything we’d be adverse to at this point. Ultimately, Astro is willing to “explore without the rigidity of calling [itself] one thing.”

Moving forward with Astro GO Play

Should you work with Astro?