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Tencent to shore up gaming lead in China with Call of Duty, Ring Fit Adventure

  • Call of Duty: Mobile is expected to further grow Tencent’s share in China’s mobile games arena
  • Nintendo’s Ring Fit Adventure could give a much-needed shot in the arm to Tencent’s nascent console gaming business

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Tencent Holdings, which runs the world’s largest video games business by revenue, has added blockbuster titles Call of Duty: Mobile and Ring Fit Adventure to its stacked games portfolio in China. Photo: AP
Josh Ye

Tencent Holdings aims to shore up its lead in China’s vast video games industry, after receiving the government’s go-ahead to publish popular titles Call of Duty: Mobile and Ring Fit Adventure for the domestic market, analysts said.

Industry regulator the National Press and Publication Administration on Thursday approved those two games and 26 other foreign titles, including Harry Potter: Magic Awakened from NetEase and Human: Fall Flat under local publisher XD Network.

Call of Duty: Mobile, developed by Tencent’s TiMi Studios, is expected to further expand the Shenzhen-based company’s share in China’s mobile games arena, while Nintendo’s Ring Fit Adventure could give a much-needed shot in the arm to its nascent console gaming business, according to analysts. Tencent is the exclusive local distributor of the Nintendo Switch console.
Tencent, which runs the world’s largest video games business by revenue and China’s biggest social media platform, did not immediately reply to emailed questions about the official domestic release dates for those two games.
The diversified internet giant is considered one of the few beneficiaries of the coronavirus pandemic, as millions of people in lockdown across China turned to games, cloud services, collaborative tools and other online services for entertainment, education or work.
Popular shooter game Call of Duty: Mobile recorded 250 million downloads as of June this year. Photo: Handout
Popular shooter game Call of Duty: Mobile recorded 250 million downloads as of June this year. Photo: Handout

“We expect Call of Duty: Mobile to be a strong performer for Activision and Tencent in China,” said Daniel Ahmad, senior analyst at market research firm Niko Partners. Activision, the publishing arm of US video games company Activision Blizzard, is one of the international publishers of Call of Duty: Mobile for Android and iOS.

The game recorded 250 million downloads worldwide in under nine months, showing potential to become the most successful game on the mobile platform, according to data from app tracking firm Sensor Tower. It has been available outside China since October last year.
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