Riot Games Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Riot Games Celebrates 10th Anniversary

Riot Games, famed developer of the hit MOBA League of Legends, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this month and also the full acquisition of the studio by China’s largest (and most valuable) Internet company, Tencent. Check out the full overview in the LA Times, including quotes from Niko’s Lisa Hanson and Daniel Ahmad. For a more in-depth review on Riot Games’ history, consider reading this piece on Polygon.

Singapore’s Garena Raises More Funds

Garena, the 7-year-old Internet platform based in Singapore, has raised another round of funds as they continue to expand in Southeast Asia. While the amount of this latest round has not been revealed, Garena had raised approximately US$170 million in a round earlier this year by the Malaysian state investment arm Khazanah Nasional. At that time, Garena was valued at about US$3.75 billion.

World of Warcraft’s Latest Expansion

The latest World Of Warcraft expansion, Legion, sold through more than 3.3 million copies on its first day of sale. Blizzard Entertainment has reported that it saw its highest launch-week player concurrency since the 2010 launch of Cataclysm. The expansion is now live in the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, China, Korea, and the regions of Taiwan, Hong Kong, and Macau. It is being argued that this is WoW’s most successful launch of an expansion to date.

Ali Sports & Giant Interactive Team Up for eSports

According to Marbridge Daily, “Ali Sports, the sports subsidiary of Chinese e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba Group (NYSE: BABA), recently announced that it has formed a mobile e-sports strategic partnership with Chinese online game developer and operator Giant Interactive and will invest RMB 100 mln in Giant Interactive’s mobile casual game Battle of Balls.

Ali Sports and Giant Interactive will collaborate in several areas, including e-sports competition system development, competition globalization strategy, mobile e-sports user platforms and value-added services, as well as developing e-sports talent and clubs, supporting e-sports stars, creating e-sports leagues, and developing and selling derivative products based on e-sports intellectual property (IP).”

Oxford English Dictionary Adds More Singlish

The Oxford English Dictionary has added several Singaporean slang words to the dictionary. Some of the newest additions:

In March, several other Singlish words were added including blur, ang moh, shiok and sabo, as well as food items like teh tarik and char siu.

Chinese Investment in Korean Games Industry Down

According to InsideGamesAsia, recent report by the Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) revealed that the volume of Chinese capital invested in the Korean videogame industry – apart from back-door listings and securing intellectual property purposes – has plummeted to almost zero, after years of aggressive M&A efforts that shook up Korean businesses.

Niko Partners on Twitter

Follow us on Twitter @nikochina to see these comments in real time as we publish them! Here are a few of our tweets from last week: