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Fruit Ninja goes F2P as it hits Tencent's WeChat social platform

China's version of Kakao opens its doors

Fruit Ninja goes F2P as it hits Tencent's WeChat social platform

Tencent's WeChat platform has already demonstrated its power with Tian Tian Ku Pao (aka Cool Running Everyday).

The Tencent-developed game generated around $16 million during its first month of release on the Chinese mobile messaging plaform.

And now Tencent is looking to open the pipeline with more games being released for WeChat.

One high profile title is Halfbrick's Fruit Ninja, which has just been soft-launched with integration for WeChat, as well as supporting the social graph of Tencent's featurephone instant messaging network QQ.

Slicing wallets

In terms of changes, the gameplay is broadly similar to the original, but it has been converted into a free-to-play game with monetisation options including a heart currency to control the number of game sessions, and various IAP power ups.

Of course, the point of this game - like with similar mobile networks such as Kakao and LINE - is to make use of WeChat's social virality, with players competing against their friends on the weekly high score tables.

Other foreign-developed games coming to WeChat include Plants vs Zombies 2, WeMade's Wolf Moon, and Imangi's Temple Run 2.

[source: GamesinAsia]


Contributing Editor

A Pocket Gamer co-founder, Jon is Contributing Editor at PG.biz which means he acts like a slightly confused uncle who's forgotten where he's left his glasses. As well as letters and cameras, he likes imaginary numbers and legumes.