![]() One article claimed children were spending food money on games, and playing them for up to seven hours a day, resulting in their school grades dropping. They called for more restrictions to prevent greater widespread addiction among children. I read with amazement news articles that proclaimed, “No industry, no sport, can be allowed to develop in a way that will destroy a generation.” Several articles even called gaming “spiritual opium.” Chinese authorities were labeling e-sports and games the “opium of the mind” and digital games “electronic drugs.” Indeed, the stories were scary enough for game companies’ stock to tumble up to 10% in just a few hours. Authorities were calling for parents, game developers and manufacturers to work together to combat the scourge of the game industry, which grossed $173 billion in 2021. Suddenly, however, I was reading all over about China cracking down on the game industry to combat child addiction to their products. Little attention to the video game industry. photo: courtesy TencentUNTIL AUGUST OF LAST YEAR, I PAID The story was updated on Novemwith comments from TiMi Studios.The Girl Queen from Tencent Games popular game 'Honor of Kings'. “One of our great successes has been capturing historic moments, which were otherwise mostly irrelevant to young people today, and fuse them with modern aesthetics to bring them to life in Honor of Kings,” he added. “I want to see it take on a life of its own and continue to resonate with and thrive among players for generations to come.” “There is still plenty of room to further grow and develop the Honor of Kings IP in China,” Li Min, the game’s director and general manager of TiMi Studios, told TechCrunch. TiMi told TechCrunch that it’s not involved in the development process of Riot’s new mobile title.Īs part of the announcement, TiMi also revealed that it’s capitalizing on Honor of Kings for IP derivative works, including two new games in unspecified new genres, an anime, and a TV series. It now comes the time for Riot, fully acquired by Tencent in 2015, to test its own interpretation, Wild Rift. The overseas edition of Honor of Kings, called Arena of Valor, has had limited success outside Asia. TiMi unveiled its milestone at a time when Riot Games is testing a mobile version of League of Legends, widely seen as the desktop blockbuster that had inspired Honor of Kings in the first place. ![]() Tencent has since tightened age verification checks for players, now standard practice in China’s gaming industry. A state newspaper chastised it for hooking young users and misrepresenting historical events. The title has an unusually high female player base - around 50% - for a genre dominated by males.Ĭontroversy has also arisen amid Honor of Kings’ fervor. The game is credited for popularizing the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) category in China using clever designs like short sessions, friendly controls, esports integration, and social networking leverage, as games analyst Daniel Ahmad pointed out. The brain behind Honor of Kings is TiMi Studios, which ramped up hiring in the U.S. ![]() The title has not only broken user records but generated other unprecedented accomplishments along the way.įor one, it consistently ranks among the top-grossing mobile games worldwide, jostling with PUBG Mobile made by another Tencent studio Lightspeed & Quantum - gaming has long been the cash cow for Tencent, better known for its WeChat messenger. At its five-year anniversary gala graced by celebrities, esports stars and orchestras, Tencent’s mobile game Honor of Kings said it has crossed 100 million daily active users.
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