Going East
Fortnite heads to China
The battle bus ventures East
Head Of The Pack
Tencent leads the way in $22 billion spent on games deals in last 12 months
The internet giant participated in over $4 of every $10 invested in games companies and was involved in over three-quarters of all games M&A
Going Offline
China’s app crackdown removes 370 livestreaming apps
Major players like Douyu and Huya also under investigation
Impact
New mobile RPG Honkai Impact 3rd racks up 35 million downloads
Players who download the game will earn launch rewards and bonuses throughout April
You What?
Tencent introduces social credit score system to combat cheaters and reward good behaviour
Game Credit currently only available to Chinese users
Boycotted
Report: China still refuses to license new South Korean-developed games
Tensions originated with South Korea’s THAAD missile defence system which led to China’s unofficial license boycott
Going Public
Chinese livestreaming platform Huya files for $200m IPO in US
But no date set
Education
Chinese developer NetDragon buys online learning community Edmodo for $138 million
Deal paid via a combination of cash and shares of an affiliated education company
Partners In Education
Tencent partners with Age of Learning to bring ABCmouse English curriculum to China
Consists of more than 5,000 learning activities, including games, puzzles and books
Group Up
China’s Shanda Games invests $9.4 million in Kakao Games
Kakao Games received a $131.6 million investment from multiple investors in February
Big In China
How Mobvista's UA campaign for Marvel: Contest of Champions led to better conversions and engagement in China
NativeX's Joyce Ye deals out the advice
Road To China
Ubisoft partners with Tencent to release games in China
Strategic partnership sees the French firm's titles move into the territory
Indie Publishing
Habby: We don’t believe in copying like other publishers
Start-up wants to help guide indies onto the global stage
Get Published
New mobile publisher Habby on the hunt for indie games
Profiling Habby - the hot new games publisher from Asia
Looking East
Flaregames sets its sights on solving China's publishing problems with Yeahmobi partnership
German publisher rebrands as it continues to expand its operations
Money Stream
Tencent pumps $632 million into Chinese online games streaming platform Douyu
Follows $462 million funding in rival Huya
Get In
NetEase’s PUBG-like Knives Out reaps $24 million in February thanks to unexpected success in Japan
Japanese players contributed to 80 per cent of global sales outside of the Chinese Market
Tapped Out
Chinese online games portal TapTap shut down for three months as government cracks down on rule breakers
Tencent, 360, Xiaomi and more also slapped with fines
Quite Honorable
Tencent dangles extra Honor of Kings game time carrot to kids who get good grades
New in-game contracts will let children negotiate play time with their parents
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
The CEO of publishing giant Tencent is now the richest person in China
Tech mogul Ma Huateng also moved 23 places up the global rich list to 15th
Mobile Game Trends
China mobile game trends in H2 2017: Tencent and NetEase claim nine of top 10 mobile revenue generators
Niko Partners Analyst Daniel Ahmad on what the charts tell us about the local games industry
Winner Winner Chicken Dinner
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds mobile games are killing it on the Chinese App Store
Battle royale games have been downloaded more than 150 million times on mobile
Ubisoft Financials Q3 Fy18
Ubisoft's China-only mobile game Might & Magic Heroes: Era of Chaos generates over $120 million in revenues
Avoids specifics on the rest of its mobile endeavours
Switch And Beyond
Nintendo talks "critical" second year for its Switch and looking beyond a six-year lifecycle
Also discusses China, Super Mario movie, and Switch Online
Tencent Invests In Shanda
Updated: Tencent invests $476 million in previous China market leader Shanda Games
Size of stake still unknown
Netease Financials Q4 Fy17
Knives Out and Rules of Survival boost NetEase's 2017 revenues to $8.3 billion
Onymyoji declines, but a global launch and new MOBA should help
Love Produces Revenue
China-only dating sim Love and Producer generated $32 million in January 2018
From the developer of Love Nikki - Dress UP Queen
Chinese publisher Netease signs partnership with UK tech firm Improbable
Knives Out developer to use cloud-based platform SpatialOS for new games
Mobile Expansion
Hong Kong-listed publisher Ourgame splashes $66 million on trio of mobile acquisitions
Buys up companies in digital card and board game spaces
Iap Inspector
How does Onmyoji monetise?
IAPs from the players' perspective
More Minecraft
Minecraft cleared 144 million copies sold and 74 million MAUs in December 2017
Unclear how many sales come from mobile
Superstars By The Fire
Peter Vesterbacka and David Helgason discuss the future of the games industry
China, VR, AR, and the film industry all get talked about
Mobile Games Trends
Vietnam Snapshot: Southeast Asia’s fastest growing mobile games market
Niko Partners Analyst Daniel Ahmad on what the charts tell us about the local games industry
Building A Relationship
Lego partners with Tencent on games and potential social network for kids in China
Lego-specific video zones, code-able toys, and much more
Mini-games For China
Ubisoft and Ketchapp eye China mobile market with Tencent deal
Partnership gives publishers access to 980 million monthly active users of Weixin app
Flipped
Tencent appears to copy Ketchapp's Bottle Flip for new WeChat mini-game
"Tiao yi tiao" looks a lot like Bottle Flip, and the WeChat team seem to know it
Go Mi
Oculus partners with Xiaomi to manufacture upcoming standalone VR headset Oculus Go
Xiaomi also creating its own near-identical headset for the China market
Going East
Niantic readies Pokemon Go for China launch
Possible partnership with Chinese publishing giant NetEase
Unity 2017.3 Update
Unity rolls out 2017.3 update with easier access to Xiaomi's China app store
Also improves various graphics and Cinemachine functions, while dropping support for Tizen
Tencent Rules All
Tencent generated 51.6% of China's online games revenue in China in Q3 2017
Beijing-based research firm iResearch digs into the numbers
Xiaomi Ipo
Report: Xiaomi exploring a potential IPO in Hong Kong with a $50 billion valuation
Could raise $5 billion to help its expansion in India
Skidstorm Sale
Finnish dev Immobile sells Early Access game SkidStorm to Cheetah Mobile after pirated version goes viral in China
Publishing deal turns into an offer too good to turn down
Two New Battlegrounds
Tencent reveals two new mobile games based on PC hit PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds
One traditional, one a little more action-focused
Mobile Hit In-waiting?
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds is coming to mobile through Tencent partnership
Set to launch in China first
Xiaomi India Investment
Xiaomi plans to invest $1 billion in 100 Indian developers over the next five years
CEO Lei Jun outlines the company's plans for the future
Tencent Market Cap
Tencent becomes first company in China to break $500 billion market cap
Bigger than Alibaba, Baidu, EA, Activision Blizzard, and Ubisoft combined
Tappx In China
Tappx strengthens operations in mainland China with new office in Beijing
Bob Wang heads up the new office
Netease Financials Q3 Fy17
NetEase's launch of Minecraft in China draws in 30 million new users
Onmyoji revenues sliding in China
Tencent Financials Q3 Fy17
Tencent mobile revenues grew 84% to $2.75 billion in Q3
Honor of Kings remains the key revenue maker
Launch In China
How to launch mobile games in China
Tappx China Country Manager Bob Wang talks us through it