Most recently in March, product listings by multiple top sellers of imported console games vanished from Alibaba's Taobao marketplace.
But these grey markets, both online and offline, are susceptible to ongoing clampdown. Nintendo Switch distributes in China through a partnership with Tencent sealed in 2019.Ĭhinese console players often resort to grey markets for foreign editions because the list of Chinese titles approved by local authorities is tiny compared to what's available outside the country. Sony's PlayStation 5 just hit the shelves in China in late April.
#Sources tencent timi honor kings duty series#
Xbox's latest Series X and Series S are to debut in China imminently, though the launch doesn't appear to be linked to the Tencent deal. Oasis is played via a virtual reality headset. There are clues in a recruitment notice posted recently by a TiMi employee: The unit is hiring developers for an upcoming AAA title that is benchmarked against the Oasis, a massively multiplayer online game that evolves into a virtual society in the fiction and film Ready Player One. TiMi operates a branch in Los Angeles and said in January 2020 that it planned to "triple" its headcount in North America, adding that building high-budget, high-quality AAA mobile games was core to its global strategy. TiMi has been trying to strengthen its own brand and distinguish itself from other Tencent gaming clusters, such as its internal rival LightSpeed & Quantum Studio, which is known for PUBG Mobile.Ħ investors on 2021’s mobile gaming trends and opportunities Honor of Kings pairs competitive gameplay with dynamic social interactions and is tailored for mobile play by its developer and operator, TiMi Studio Group. The partnership could help TiMi build a name globally by converting its mobile titles into console plays for Microsoft's Xbox. Honor of Kings is a trend-setting competitive battle mobile game and the first to average 100 million daily active users in the world. In all, TiMi pocketed $10 billion in revenue last year, according to a report from Reuters citing people with knowledge. In 2020, Honor of Kings alone generated close to $2.5 billion in player spending, according to market research company SensorTower. The succinct announcement did not mention whether the tie-up is for content development or Xbox's console distribution in China, but said more details will be unveiled for the "deep partnership" by the end of this year.Įstablished in 2008 within Tencent, TiMi is behind popular mobile titles such as Honor of Kings and Call of Duty Mobile. While Tencent has been one of the largest purchasers of gaming companies, almost every large gaming company, from Microsoft to Activision Blizzard, has been on a buying frenzy.TiMi Studios, one of the world's most lucrative game makers and part of Tencent's gargantuan digital entertainment empire, said Thursday that it has struck a strategic partnership with Xbox. Investments and mergers and acquisitions by large gaming companies continues to break records. With blockbuster titles like Honor of Kings and Call of Duty Mobile, TiMi Studio Group hopes to not only expand on its big-title development, but hopes to create new winners in Canada. Chinese tech giant Tencent’s Timi Studios, maker of popular video games Honour of Kings and Call of Duty Mobile, generated revenue of US10 billion last year, two people with direct knowledge of. With locations in Los Angeles and Seattle, TiMi is placing a huge footprint on the North American east coast. It was also announced that Tencent’s flagship game developer, TiMi Studio Group is expanding into Montreal. However, with Microsoft’s $2.1 trillion market-cap, Tencent has a long way to go. Already the biggest gaming company by gaming revenue, Tencent is looking to eventually topple Microsoft as the biggest gaming company by market capitalization. These latest acquisitions bring Tencent’s total number of international game developers to over 4,000.
Tencent announced it had agreed to acquire British developer, Sumo Group for $1.26 billion, then a day later announced its majority stake in Swedish company, Stunlock Studios at an undisclosed amount. Tencent has acquired an additional two companies and announced a new overseas development studio in Montreal, Canada.