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WeGame to launch new titles before end of year
WeGame to launch new titles before end of year Tencent has announced that it will launch a number of new AAA and indie buy-to-play (B2P) titles on its WeGame, PC game distribution platform, before the end of 2017. WeGame launched in September of this year and is Tencent’s main platform for B2P PC games, competing against Steam, with a goal to launch 100 titles in 2018. Titles set to release in 2017 include Dirt 4, Valkyria Chronicles, Transistor, Firewatch, The Long Dark, Portal Knights, F1 2017 and more.
NetEase goes all in on Battle Royale
NetEase will be launching a number of titles in the battle royale genre for China and the global market. Earlier this year the company launched a battle royale mode for its licensed Terminator 2 mobile game. Now the company has launched a battle royale mode in its MMO called Crusadors of Light. Earlier this week the company launched a standalone battle royale game called Wildland Operation. All of these games have been released globally on iOS this week.
HTC reveals standalone VR headset
HTC has announced its brand new Vive Focus VR headset for the Mainland China market. The Vive Focus is a standalone VR headset that does not require external hardware. The headset is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 chip and uses inside-out positional tracking. The company expects existing VR content from Daydream VR and Galaxy VR devices to be ported easily to Vive Focus.
Alibaba’s Singles Day generates $25.3bn
Alibaba’s Singles Day shopping holiday, also known as double 11 because it falls on November 11th (11/11), generated record sales of $25.3 billion. The e-commerce giant saw a 39% increase in revenue compared to Singles Day 2016. In addition to discounts across its online stores, the company partnered with thousands of traditional retail stores and hosted a star-studded gala with film star Nicole Kidman and American rapper Pharrell Williams to promote the shopping holiday. About 90% of transactions were done via mobile. At its peak, the company’s processors handled 256,000 transactions per second. Apart from Alibaba other companies also try to have sales promotions on November 11th, so total e-commerce on that day was even greater than the numbers released by Alibaba for its own transactions.
Honor of Kings to receive TV Show
At the recent 2018 Tencent Video World Summit held in Beijing, Vice President of Penguin Films Ma Tingkun announced that the blockbuster mobile game Honor of Kings aka Arena of Valor will be adopted into a live variety TV show starring big name celebrities such as Angelababy. Tencent is adopting a pan entertainment model, which involves generating multiple types of related media such as TV and film based on its game IP.
With the world’s fastest growing games market, a friendly regulatory climate, if you’re not already paying attention to Southeast Asia, you should be. We launched three reports on Southeast Asia this fall. Market size and other key takeaways from the analysis can be found here:
Southeast Asia PC Online Games Market Report & 5-year Forecast2017
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