China

• Private Equity Firm Blackstone Buys Vungle; Tencent Launches Streaming App for WeGame

  3 days ago News

  

  TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the trending stories in gaming. In today’s news: Private equity firm Blackstone buys Vungle; Tencent launches streaming app for WeGame; and Baidu renews partnership with Snap. Private equity firm Blackstone buys Vungle Private equity firm Blackstone has announced it is purchasing performance marketing platform Vungle, which serves in-app video ads with publishers including Rovio and Zynga. While the exact terms of the deal have yet to be disclosed, sources have informed Techcrunch that the all-cash payment is [...]

• Tencent Leads Efforts to Build China Age Ratings System; HQ Trivia Lays Off 20% of Staff

  2 weeks ago News

  

  TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the trending stories in gaming. In today’s news: Tencent leads efforts to build age ratings system in China; HQ Trivia lays off approximately 20% of staff; and worldwide mobile gaming revenue hits USD$29.6bn (£23.6bn) in the first half of 2019. Tencent leads efforts to build age ratings system in China In collaboration with more than ten other China-based gaming firms, as well as state-backed newspaper the People’s Daily, Tencent is leading efforts to build an age ratings [...]

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• Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony write letter to Trump against game console tariffs; Industry is only "paying lip service" to gaming addiction

  3 weeks ago News

  

  TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the trending stories in gaming. In today’s news: Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony write letter to Trump against game console tariff; Industry is only “paying lip service” to gaming addiction – UK technology inquiry chair; and Treyarch under fire for crunch culture. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony write letter to Trump against game console tariff Plans from US president Donald Trump to impose a 25% tariff on goods, including video game consoles, has drawn criticism from Microsoft, Nintendo and [...]

• Harry Potter Wizards Unite Due to Gross USD£10m (£7.85m) in first month; Nintendo Opens Second Retail Store

  4 weeks ago News

  

  TheGamingEconomy’s Daily Digest brings you the trending stories in gaming. In today’s news: Harry Potter Wizards Unite due to gross USD£10m (£7.85m) in first month; Nintendo opens second retail store; and US government blocks League of Legends in Iran and Syria. Harry Potter Wizards Unite due to gross USD£10m in first month Mobile AR title Harry Potter Wizards Unite is due to take in USD$10m (£7.85m) in its first month, according to data from analytics body Sensor Tower. The title shifted 400,000 [...]

• Tencent and Riot rumoured to be partnering on League of Legends mobile

  2 months ago News

  

  Chinese technology giant Tencent is understood to be partnering with Riot Games to bring the latter’s globally popular PC game League of Legends to mobile. While Tencent can feel like a company that dominates the headlines all too often, this one is simply too big to ignore. League of Legends is an absolute giant of the booming esports sector; an industry that is expected to reach a global value of USD$1bn (£788.7m) in 2019, according to figures from analytics and data [...]

• China’s Mobile Game Revenue Predicted to Exceed USD$25bn by 2023

  2 months ago News

  

  That figure – and Niko’s other findings – point to rapid growth in China’s games market, despite state involvement stifling game releases in the country through 2018 and into this year. Niko’s in-depth report points to the fact that China presently accounts for 25% of the world’s mobile games market. As home to 18.4% of the world’s population, China is clearly punching above its significant weight when it comes to mobile. China is currently home to 1.4 billion people. Niko’s figures [...]

• Next-Gen On-Device Mobile AI: What Is It & What Might It Mean for Game Ad Tech?

  3 months ago News

  

  Tencent, Qualcomm, and Vivo recently announced a new partnership, with a view to refining game experiences by harnessing the potential of on-device mobile AI. We’ve all heard so much about AI in recent months that it’s easy to assume any reference to it is simply over-enthusiastic marketing speak. But what this collection of tech giants have underway is pretty fascinating. It’s also somewhat confusing, as it’s a little complicated on the technical side of things. So let’s take a look at [...]

• Honor of Kings: One Game banks USD$1bn in One Month

  4 months ago News

  

  The mobile game Honor of Kings has generated USD$1bn (£757.5m) through the month of February. By now, stories of free-to-play mobile games making extravagant amounts of money are relatively familiar, but the ramping success of TenCent’s ‘multiplayer online battle arena’ game (more commonly a ‘MOBA’) is particularly fascinating. The Chinese-made Honor of Kings is also known as Arena of Valor in various international markets. The figures come from Japanese investment outfit Nomura, as reported by cifnews (via PocketGamer.biz). Honor of Kings has long been [...]

• Intel & Tencent Partner for New Game Streaming Service

  5 months ago News

  

  Computing hardware specialist Intel and Chinese tech giant Tencent are expected to announce a co-developed game streaming service at this month’s Game Developers Conference. The likely announcement emerged after a series of tweets from Daniel Ahmad of market research and consulting business Niko Partners. Convincing images shared by Ahmad appear to show a service capable of streaming 1080p games at 60FPS with a delay of <40ms. If gaming display and streaming specifications aren’t your thing, you can be assured they promise a [...]

• Chinese Gaming Giants’ Overseas Revenues Skyrocket, Chinese Government Reinstates Game Approvals Freeze

  5 months ago News

  

  Two current game business stories together highlight the stark dichotomy at the heart of China’s games market. As revealed in a new report from business insight specialist IHS Markit, Chinese tech giants Tencent and NetEase saw extraordinary profit growth for their international mobile game releases through 2018. Simply put, combined mobile game net revenue gained in territories outside of China by Tencent and NetEase increased 500% in 2018 to USD$472m (£360m). Again, that figure relates to sales of games outside Tencent and [...]