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Iris Deng

China’s biggest game publisher Tencent Holdings has received approval to distribute a Nintendo Switch game on the mainland, paving the way for the Japanese video game maker to bring its latest console to the world’s biggest gaming market.
Tencent has been given permission to distribute Nintendo’s New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe game, according to an announcement on the website of Guangdong Provincial Department of Culture and Tourism on Thursday.
Nintendo has submitted a request to the Chinese government for approval to sell its Switch console in China in collaboration with Tencent, according to a Wall Street Journal report, citing a Nintendo spokesman on Thursday.
The Japanese company has previously tried to enter the heavily regulated market through a joint venture.

Tencent did not immediately comment on its plan for Nintendo Switch. A query sent to a message board on Nintendo’s website and calls to its US team were not answered.
China’s gaming market recorded its slowest revenue growth last year in at least a decade due to a nine-month freeze in game license approvals, according to data from Beijing-based researcher CNG. The process restarted at the end of December.
“Partnering with Nintendo and distributing Switch will not only give Tencent access to the new realm of consoles, but also give a boost to the brand and its efforts in independent games,” Pei Pei, analyst of Sinolink Securities, wrote in a research note. The tie-up will facilitate the development of console games and create new growth for the Chinese gaming market which is facing challenges with PC games hitting a growth ceiling and mobile games in a bottleneck, Pei added.
Chinese video game players, numbering a whopping 619.5 million, spent US$37.9 billion in 2018, according to Newzoo, a video game market research firm.
China had imposed a ban on foreign companies from selling game consoles in 2000, but lifted the ban in 2014. Nintendo had established iQue, a joint venture with Chinese company Wei Yen in 2002, to sell Nintendo devices by marketing them as handheld or plug-and-play systems under the iQue brand.
But iQue did not release the Wii U – Nintendo’s last device before the Switch – in China, and recently shut down its hardware business.
“This move will please investors who have been asking about whether Nintendo will enter China … for some time,” said Daniel Ahmad, an analyst with Niko Partner.
“Nintendo must work with a partner to enter the China market, so it is no surprise that it has partnered with Tencent, the largest games company in the world, to distribute the Switch,” Ahmad said, adding that bundling the console with a game is a common strategy to attract non-console centric players in China.
Nintendo shares jumped over 15 per cent in Friday morning trade following the Tencent approval.
China’s 14-year ban crippled the development of console games in the country, which generated an estimated US$600 million in 2018, only 1.6 per cent of all gaming spending in China compared to mobile games accounting for over 60 per cent, according to a Newzoo report last August.
However, the number of players of consoles and TV-based games is expected to reach 24.37 million by 2022, doubling from 2018 driven in part by the reversal of the console ban, lower console prices, and localisation of international games for China, Niko Partner said in August.
Nintendo also distributes Tencent’s blockbuster game Honour of Kings in China, on Nintendo Switch, where it is called Arena of Battle. The game surpassed one million downloads on the console in December 2018, only three months after its launch.
Shenzhen-based Tencent was ranked the biggest games company by revenue in the word for a sixth consecutive year, accounting for nearly 15 per cent of the global games market, according to a Newzoo report on Wednesday.
Additional reporting by Zheping Huang


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Tencent

Tencent wins approval to distribute Nintendo Switch video game in China

Nintendo is seeking permission to sell its Switch game console in China. Photo: Bloomberg

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe. Photo: Handout

An Iron Man rip-off gets pulled from the Chinese internet

The film Armoured War God Monkey King was expected to stream on Tencent Video from Tuesday, but never made it online as Marvel fans in China slammed producers Daishu Movie and Grandmet Presentation for copying Marvel Studios’ Iron Man. Photo: Handout

A somewhat more traditional take on the classic character of the Monkey King.

Hmmm.

From Pokemon Go to retro console release, Nintendo mines past for a lucrative future

The NES Classic Edition will come preloaded with 30 classic titles and will have an HDMI port to link to modern TVs.

Pokemon Go

FILE - In this Tuesday, July 12, 2016, file photo, Pinsir, a Pokemon, is found by a group of Pokemon Go players at Bayfront Park in downtown Miami. The "Pokemon Go" craze has sent legions of players hiking around cities and battling with "pocket monsters" on their smartphones. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz, File)

GD8T79 Hanover, Germany. 13th July, 2016. A player uses the app 'Pokemon Go', with other users pictured in the background, in Hanover, Germany, 13 July 2016. The game was released in Germany on the same day. Photo: Sebastian Gollnow/dpa/Alamy Live News [25JULY2016 FEATURES DIGITAL]

A picture taken on July 14, 2016 shows an avatar on the screen of a mobile phone as a player uses the Pokemon Go application on their mobile phone as they wait with members of the media opposite the door of 10 Downing Street in central London, as cabinet appointments by new prime minister Theresa May are made on her first full day in office. Pokemon Go mania has players armed with smartphones hunting streets, parks, rivers, landmarks and other sites to capture monsters and gather supplies. The free app, based on a Nintendo title that debuted 20 years ago, has been adapted to the mobile internet age by Niantic Labs, a company spun out of Google last year. / AFP PHOTO / OLI SCARFF

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Nintendo has also submitted an application to the Chinese government to sell its Switch console on the mainland
Chinese video game players spent US$37.9 billion last year



Nintendo has also submitted an application to the Chinese government to sell its Switch console on the mainland.


Video gaming

Nintendo

Tencent wins approval to distribute Nintendo Switch video game in China

Nintendo has also submitted an application to the Chinese government to sell its Switch console on the mainland Chinese video game players spent US$37.9 billion last year

Nintendo has also submitted an application to the Chinese government to sell its Switch console on the mainland

Chinese video game players spent US$37.9 billion last year