Tencent’s DnF Mobile game overwhelmed on launch, offering hopes of it reviving slow gaming growth
- The mobile version of DnF, developed by Japanese-Korean game studio Nexon, experienced problems shortly after its official debut in China on Tuesday
- For the first quarter of 2024, Tencent's traditional strong video gaming saw a 2 per cent revenue decline in the domestic market
Tencent Holdings’ Dungeon & Fighter (DnF) Mobile launched with an overwhelming start, as the Chinese tech giant pins high hopes on the eagerly awaited title to boost its sluggish domestic video gaming business.
The mobile version of DnF, developed by Japanese-Korean game studio Nexon, remained top of the charts for free game downloads on the iOS app store on Wednesday, after experiencing problems shortly after its official debut in China on Tuesday, when some players said they experienced online queues and were unable to log in.
Tencent, which operates the game in China, cited a server outage for the incident as it trumpeted the “fiery enthusiasm” from players for the game.
The server supporting the game needed to undergo emergency maintenance that was estimated to take around 90 minutes, according to DnF Mobile's official Weibo account, which also pledged to compensate all players with in-game coins and gifts. The game resumed operations an hour later with some functions still unavailable.
With the outage an indication of overwhelming demand for DnF Mobile, Tencent, which operates the world’s largest video gaming business by revenue, may have good reason to pin hopes on the title giving its business a boost.
“DnF Mobile is a key title for us given the success and longevity of the DnF [personal computer game] and the general scarcity of successful action games on mobile,” Tencent president Martin Lau Chi-ping said in a conference call in March, weeks after the title received regulatory approval to launch in China.
DnF Mobile is expected to gross around 6 billion yuan (US$836 million) in a year, according to a recent note by investment bank Jefferies.
For the first quarter of 2024, Tencent's traditionally strong video gaming business saw a 2 per cent year-on-year decline in revenue in the domestic market, while rising 3 per cent overseas, reaching 34.5 billion yuan and 13.6 billion yuan, respectively.
Apart from DnF Mobile, Tencent is also preparing to launch several high-production-value titles this year, including Tarisland, Need for Speed Mobile, One Piece Mobile and Delta Force: Hawk Operations.
The company’s annual game release event, Spark Conference, is scheduled for next Tuesday.
Jefferies is expecting a recovery in Tencent’s video gaming revenue in the second quarter of this year. “We are positive on Tencent’s gaming revenue outlook, considering that it has a number of emerging franchises with potential,” analysts Thomas Chong and Zoey Zong wrote in a recent note.
