Wil to Play, a suite of mobile games inspired by TV game show Wowowin hosted by Filipino celebrity Willie Revillame, integrates with its TV counterpart and allows fans to win real-world prizes such as gadgets and food items despite not being in the studio.
Developed by Big Crunch Digital Pte. Ltd., the Android app is part of a larger gaming platform called Perya Perya (derived from the Filipino word for amusement park).
“The company has always aimed to develop a highly disruptive mass-market mobile entertainment offering for Southeast Asia,” said Jackeline Chua, managing director for Big Crunch Digital, in a press release. The company has experience in content, anime, and game production and development, working with big gaming studios such as Microsoft’s first-party studio The Coalition and Synergy 88 Digital, Inc.
“With Wil to Play and other currently developing mobile gaming platforms, we’ve achieved distribution to more than 10 million users within the 2021 calendar year alone. We expect those numbers to increase exponentially in the coming years,” Big Crunch Digital said, adding that Mr. Revillame’s popularity and reach will be the main driver of Wil to Play’s success.
In the Philippines, mobile gaming has been projected to grow in the coming years. Big Crunch Digital cites recent Statista.com reports that say Philippine mobile gaming revenues will reach $1,032 million in 2021 and go up to $1,522 million by 2025.
Through the gaming platform Perya Perya, the company plans to further drive the mobile gaming market. Its interest is tapping into the average revenue per user of $33.69 from the same report.
Acknowledging that games like Mobile Legends, Fortnite, and PUBG as more responsible for the success of the mobile gaming market than Perya Perya’s casual games, Big Crunch Digital aims “to show the world that it can compete at that same level with the Filipino market, by giving the audience a game and ‘ecosystem’ that is uniquely Filipino.”
The mini games will also be easy to play, known as “hyper-casual” in the gaming industry. They will include a memory game, a box-jumping game called Wow Girl, and a spin-off of the iconic Filipino game tumbang preso called Tumbang Premyo. The minimum specifications to run them will be Android OS 5.0, or Lollipop, and an internet speed of 2 to 3 megabits per second.
Wil to Play is set to have its open beta release this June. For more information, visit wiltoplay.com or wiltoplay.ph. — Brontë H. Lacsamana