Mexico’s Anima Studios and Teravision Games Partner Up to Create Mobile Apps
Latin America’s most prominent animation studio, Anima Estudios, and Colombia-based Teravision Games have pacted to generate mobile apps based on Anima’s slate.
“We see in Teravision Games a perfect partner to increase the audiences for our stories and characters, as well as the economic benefits that this huge market can offer,” said Anima COO-VP, Jose C. Garcia de Letona. “Ultimately, we’d like to make two apps a year,” he said, adding that prior to its partnership with Teravision, Anima created two apps in the past: “Kick O’s,” a soccer-themed app which coincided with the World Cup three years ago, and “Bugsted,” in co-production with Vodka Capital. The latter is no longer available.
With Teravision, we’re tapping their knowhow, their expertise and deep knowledge of the gaming market,” said Garcia de Letona.
“This kind of alliance is common in the U.S. and the Canadian market, but in Latin America it hasn’t been that easy to achieve,” said Enrique Fuentes, CEO, Teravision Games. “Now, Anima Estudios and Teravision Games, are looking to be the first, working on innovative ways to collaborate and capitalize Latin America’s talent by joining forces and working together beyond the competition.”
The first app out the gate will be based on Anima’s “The Legends” saga with a focus on two of its most beloved characters: Finado and Moribunda, where the sugar skull characters are pitted against their enemies in increasingly difficult games.
“We hope to be launching the app in three-to-four weeks,” said Garcia de Letona who added that they’re still deciding whether to launch both a free basic and fee-based premium version at once or one fee-based app at once. “We’re not discarding the idea of adapting the game to PCs but the penetration of smartphones has outpaced PCs in Latin America,” he added. The mobile app will be launched in Latin America on its first phase before it is made available worldwide.
Since its launch in 2002, Mexico-based Anima Estudios has produced several full-length animation features, including “Top Cat,” “The Legend of Chupacabras” and “Wicked Flying Monkeys.” It has also created TV series such as “El Chavo,” “El Chapulín Colorado” and “Teenage Fairytale Dropouts” and is the first studio in Latin America to produce an original series for Netflix, “Legend Quest” (“Las Leyendas”), which launched online in February.
Teravison Games is a 10-year old game development company headquartered in Bogota, Colombia with offices in Venezuela and the U.S., and has worked with such companies as Disney, Nickelodeon, DHX, PBS, Namco and Atari. It has created more than 80 video games for mobile, PC and recently for VR (Virtual Reality). “We’re exploring the possibility of entering the Virtual Reality market, too,” said Garcia de Letona.
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