Tencent, a Major Influencer in the Chinese Game Market
NC's Blade & Soul 2 Also Preparing for Entry into China with Tencent
Domestic game companies are putting great effort into collaborating with Tencent, a global IT company from China. For entering the Chinese market, cooperation with local companies is essential, and they aim to make Tencent, which has significant market influence and success know-how, their ally.
According to industry sources on the 14th, Pearl Abyss is negotiating with Tencent regarding the publishing contract and the foreign game license issued for the representative massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) ‘Black Desert’ content. Tencent will be responsible for local service of Black Desert in China, with a release expected within this year.
Expectations have grown in the market following news of Pearl Abyss collaborating with Tencent. NCSoft is also attracting attention as it prepares for the Chinese service of ‘Blade & Soul 2’. These games were also introduced at Tencent’s game event ‘SPARK 2024’ held last month.
The reason for high expectations for domestic games serviced by Tencent is due to its absolute influence in the Chinese market. For foreign game companies to provide services in the Chinese game market, cooperation with local publishing companies is essential. The Chinese government issues foreign game licenses, a kind of permit for overseas games, and regulates that services can only be provided through publishing companies. Generally, publishing companies operate the services in China and share a certain percentage of the revenue generated with the developers.
In this situation, cooperation with companies that have influence, capital strength, and local expertise in the Chinese game market is considered a crucial factor for success. This is why Tencent stands out among various publishers. As a comprehensive IT company, Tencent not only owns Riot Games, the developer of the globally popular game ‘League of Legends (LoL)’, as a subsidiary but also operates WeChat, China’s largest mobile messenger. Additionally, Tencent owns mobile payment solution WeChat Pay and game distribution platform WeGame, and actively invests in various game companies including those in Korea.
Tencent’s achievements also prove this influence. Nexon’s ‘Dungeon & Fighter Mobile’ is serviced through Tencent and has maintained the number one spot in Apple App Store sales since its release in China on the 21st of last month. It is estimated that the revenue in the first week alone was about 200 billion KRW. Krafton also signed a publishing contract with Tencent for the Chinese version of the highly popular PUBG Mobile.
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