Jump Smash supported by Li-Ning sports brand in a first-ever collaboration for Malaysian games

Jump Smash badminton sports game series developer Mediasoft announced today a five-year global sponsorship with the Beijing-based professional sports goods brand, Li-Ning. While not many details regarding the collaboration have been shared, there is one that you need to sit up and take notice of.

Jump Smash 2015 is currently in development, and will be branded Li-Ning Jump Smash 2015.

“Jump Smash is off-court badminton and Li-Ning is on-court badminton, so it makes a great combo. With Li-Ning coming on board we get to be more realistic and also reach out to a sports-focused audience,” Mediasoft MD Havene Liew said regarding the collaborative effort. Mediasoft is a privately-funded company and I imagine a cash flow injection will put it in good stead to concentrate on developing its next Jump Smash game, which has been confirmed for a March 2015 launch.

In an interview with Games in Asia earlier this year, Liew shared that he hoped for the Jump Smash series to progress onto consoles by 2016. Jump Smash development is currently monetized not just by in-app purchases, but also by in-game sponsorships from sports brands. This is Mediasoft’s biggest money-maker.

Li-Ning, represented by Sunlight Sports, hopes the collaboration will encourage badminton lovers to jump into actually playing badminton. “Hopefully from mobile some would go on to play on the courts,” said Simon Soh, Sunlight Sports director.

This collaboration is the first time a Malaysian gaming company has partnered with an international brand completely unrelated to games.

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