We all have enjoyed video games in our lives and while these have been around since years, the market for video games is thriving and is expected to continue expanding. By 2026, the expansion is predicted to increase the value of the gaming sector globally to $321 billion. After millions of individuals picked up their controllers to escape the boredom and solitude of COVID-19 lockdowns, social and casual gaming is what is driving the expansion. In the entertainment and media sector, video games only accounted for 6.1 percent of global spending in 2017, but by 2026, as gaming gets even more popular, they are expected to account for 10.9 percent of this spending.
Based out of Malaysia, Passion Republic Games (PRG) is a brand-new group of indie game developers with ten years of expertise, delivering outsourcing services to AAA developers and publishers all around the world. The team is now stepping into bringing experience and skill-set to building indie games after years of producing AAA products for some of the largest gaming companies in the world.
What does PRG Offer?
Passion Republic Games embraces the passion and enthusiasm for the arts and aspires to be a proud local icon, taking a daring stance as a game developer and publisher to provide exceptional content and experiences that draw gamers from all over the world. With this vision at the core of every new development, Passion Republic Games team of driven creators, brought together with a similar idea and over a decade’s worth of experience, is striving to create its own identity as a one-of-a-kind gaming platform.
“We love games and how it unites a wide diversity of people towards a fun-filled gaming session. We believe through our journey in game development and sharing the knowledge gained from it, we can continuously spark inspiration and hope for greater community growth. We hope to combine AAA-level craftsmanship and Indie sensibilities to create great quality games to ultimately push the local games industry
forward into a brighter future”, shares Ng AikSern, Founder, Passion Republic Games. One of the top offerings of the firm, the ‘GigaBash’ is an online arena brawler where up to four players can engage in combat as heroes and kaijus. In a fully destructible arena, it combines the chaotic excitement and simple controls of a party game with the outrageous action of a fighting game. Reminiscence for vintage Tokusatsu figures like Godzilla, Megazord, and Ultraman as well as video games like War of the Monsters and Power Stone served as the inspiration for PRG during production.
These characters continue to arouse strong feelings of nostalgia, inspiring the team to develop a cast of 10 original characters, each of whom embodied a distinct playstyle and a particular kaiju or hero trope. PRG specializes in the production of indie games, and GigaBash is its very first IP at the moment. “We’re also super excited to launch the Godzilla DLC where Godzilla, Gigan, Mechagodzilla and Destoroyah cross over into the GigaBash universe as playable characters. It’s really a great honor to have our inspiration fight our very own creation”, further addsSern.
PRG draws inspiration from a variety of independent game creators and thinks there are more parallels than differences between them. The largest similarity is a relentless enthusiasm and commitment to produce engaging experiences for customers. The company hopes to bring together friends and families from all around the world together, enabling them to enjoy GigaBash together, forming greater bonds, and thus enabling greater community growth while everyone sits on the couch and has fun navigating the enchanting world in the game.
Journey and Future Roadmap
While the team at PRG took its first step in becoming a global sensation in 2022 by self launching GigaBash, the firm strives to continue learning and growing. The firm aims to continue learning from fellow gaming developers, audiences, and derive from its own experiences.
As a result of this never-dying spirit to grow and improve, the firm’s first launch, GigaBash turned into a tremendous success, not only reaching players across continents, but also winning several awards, including the ‘Audience Award Winner’ - PLAY22 -Creative Gaming Festival, 2022, the ‘Special Unreleased Best Game Award’ - Brazil’s Independent Games Festival (BIG), 2022, the ‘Xsolla Special Award’ - Brazil’s Independent Games Festival (BIG), 2022, the ‘Best In Play Winner’ - Game Developers Conference (GDC), 2022, the ‘Honorary Award’ - Games Without Borders (GWB), 2021, the ‘Best Game Design Award’, ‘Best Technology Award’, ‘Audience Choice Award’, and ‘Grand Jury Award’ - SEA Game Awards, LevelUp KL 2019, and the ‘Indie Prize Winner’ - DengekiOnline, Tokyo Game Show 2019.
For the near future, the firm’s goal is to continue to encourage, support, and develop a team that can bring any idea to life and provide engrossing gaming experiences as the market trend changes.
Ng Aik Sern, Founder
Sern began his career teaching and sharing his love of animation and art. He launched Passion Republic after spending five years advancing the field of education. Since 2009, he has been the driving force behind Passion Republic’s expansion to over 100 people and has made contributions to numerous award-winning video game franchises, including Ghost of Tsushima, Gears 5, and others. After ten years in this industry, Sern and his team founded Passion Republic Games with the goal of developing original intellectual property (I.P.) that will accelerate the team’s learning curves and experience and produce a compelling narrative that will motivate Malaysia’s game development community.
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