Tencent Counts on Smash Hit Call of Duty to Quicken Its Global Push – Bloomberg
What happened: Tencent is planning to release “Call of Duty Mobile” to markets including the US, Europe, Japan, Latin America, and Southeast Asia amid uncertainty in the domestic market, Bloomberg reported. The game is an adaptation of Activision Blizzard’s best-selling franchise, “Call of Duty” and is currently in beta-testing without a set release date. Tencent did not provide details about how it would share revenues with Activision. Tencent is also working on other adaptation titles: Its TiMi Studio Group, for instance, is working on similar projects with several other international companies.
Why it’s important: Tencent has been importing games for years, but in recent years, it has recently been revising its strategy to focus more on overseas markets, primarily due to slower economic growth and increasingly stringent regulations at home. The successful experiment with “PUBG Mobile,” one of the highest-grossing mobile games worldwide, is giving Tencent more experience in cooperating with international game studios. This global perspective, however, will require Tencent, which has long been accused of copying content, to enforce better intellectual property protection.