Dec 14, 2021

Singapore's Tiny Island Productions Partners with Huawei to Build Metabase Theme Park

In 2017, Tiny Island Productions (TIP) was set on creating an Asian equivalent of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Now it has gone one further: it wants a piece of the metaverse.

The Singaporean studio has struck a partnership with Huawei to develop the virtual theme park Tiny Island Universe. It will leverage the Chinese tech giant's cloud platform to build the realm, which will feature malls and zones for users to “explore, socialize, and have fun in.” Chinese gaming, media, and retail companies have shown interest in “potential collaborations and partnerships” relating to the theme park.

Tiny Island Universe will first be deployed in Singapore and a major Chinese city. “Singapore's 5g infrastructure and highly wired populace render it an optimal testbed” for the experience, according to TIP and Huawei. Eventually, the project will draw on “Huawei's AI development platform which will customize unique, personalized experiences for each and every user.”

TIP, one of Singapore's leading animation studios, has relevant experience here: it has produced cg animation for actual theme parks and other venues, as CEO David Kwok explained to us last year. Beijing Silkroading Culture, a key partner of the company's in this space, will also contribute to the creation of Tiny Island Universe.

As well as its attractions-based and vr work, TIP is behind the cg series Dream Defenders, about two teenagers who can slip into a dreamworld with the help of a supercomputer. Its themes anticipate the metaverse, as the studio acknowledges. The show has been distributed in the U.S. by Hulu, Amazon Prime, and Discovery Kids.

In 2017, through a joint venture with Thailand's Shellhut Entertainment, TIP signed a ten-film co-production deal with China's Wings Media. The deal was valued at USD$250 million.

In a statement, Kwok outlined his vision of the metaverse: “Users will eventually be creating, trading, and socializing with each other. Imagine buying a branded pair of sport shoes that you can wear both in real life, and worn by your metaverse avatar. Or even creating and selling content to other users in the metaverse so that you can buy that pair of sport shoes in the first place. The possibilities are limitless.”