True Group, Canadian company set up video game joint venture 

 
True Group’s wholly owned subsidiary True Incube owns 40 per cent of the newly founded joint venture, while Axion Ventures holds the remaining 60-per-cent stake. 
The video-game industry is forecast to grow to US$106.7 billion (Bt3.7 trillion) in global revenues this year. That is more than the music and movie industries combined. By 2025, the video-game industry is expected to approach $200 billion in annual revenue. 
Southeast Asia is rapidly growing as a new hub of the game industry in terms of both production and consumption. In Thailand alone, annual export revenue from the game industry is estimated to be about Bt70 billion by 2025. 
True Axion Games has set the goal of becoming the best game developer in Southeast Asia and a key driving force of the Thai economy for the foreseeable future, said Suphachai Chearavanont, chairman of True Group’s executive committee.
“Together, we are creating the synergy that will derive from Axion’s strength as the leading global player in the game market and True’s competitive advantages as the integrated wireless and wired networks that are ultimately efficient with the greatest nationwide coverage as well as a variety of media platforms and quality content. 
“We are building significant business value that benefits True Group ourselves, the local game industry, the education sector, the start-up ecosystem and eventually the overall Thai economy,” Suphachai said. 
The two partners also plan to set up a world-class game academy, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia, to develop manpower to serve the demand of the rising game industry in Thailand. The academy is expected to play an important role in increasing national capabilities with innovation and creativity, which is in line with the government’s “Thailand 4.0” regime.
 “We are here to make what we call a ‘great developer’, a studio capable of making a $1 billion per year,” said Todd Bonner, chairman and chief executive of Axion Ventures. “This can only be done through years of dedication and investment in Thai people with the support of the Thai government. 
“We believe that promoting the video-game industry can stimulate not only the economy, but also the imaginations of many of our young generation to pursue careers in technology.” 
Bonner said Axion Ventures in 2006 formed an exclusive alliance with Epic Games, a leader in video-game graphics and physics technology. For 11 years Axion has trained Chinese developers in advanced video-game development techniques. In 2009, Axion shipped its first original intellectual property (IP), Fat Princess, which became the No 1 global seller on PlayStation 3 and PlayStation Portable consoles. 
After the global success of Fat Princess, in 2011, Axion published its second IP, QQSM, which was downloaded 17 million times and has so far generated revenues in excess of $50 million, from an initial investment of only $3.5 million.
In 2015 Axion signed a major game-publishing deal with Tencent, the largest video-game company on Earth, for its newest title, Rising Fire, a massively multi-player role-playing game. Rising Fire has been extensively tested by Tencent for the Greater China market and is expected to be a major success, with revenues potentially exceeding $400 million per year. “Our joint venture with True Corporation will press Axion’s cost advantage over Western and Japanese studios even further. Our next leap forward is Southeast Asia, Thailand in particular,” he said.
“Our new venture, True Axion Games, will allow us to not only help build Thai talent for the ever-growing market, but also increase our ability to reach out to the rest of the world and put the nation prominently on the global gaming map.”