Tencent to acquire Japanese publishing company Kadokawa

• Tencent will acquire a 6.86% stake in Kadokawa for ¥30 billion (US$264 million) via its subsidiary Sixjoy
• Tencent will become Japanese publishing company Kadokawa third-largest shareholder after completing the buy the stake in the company which is expected to take place in mid November
• Kadokawa said the transaction will enable it to enter into a business alliance agreement with Tencent for the anime business, further promoting the company’s IP-based global media mix, adding that the transaction can also enable it to form a capital alliance with Tencent too
• Kadokawa is a company publishing a wide variety of book titles, amounting to as many as 5,000 a year, including novels and comic books; The company also runs a video -sharing site Niconico
  

Tencent invested in Suzhou 51zone games, holds a share of 20%

• 51zone games is a mobile game developer and based in Suzhou, was established in 2015
• Two games are under of developing: Wild Diary & Plant evolution, both are casual games
  

Min Chen Health(名臣健康) acquires game company Kashgar Aoshu for ￥219 million(US$ 34 million), developer of Rakshasa Street: Born to be King(镇魂街：天生为王）

• Min Chen Health acquire 100% equity of Kashgar Aoshu
• Kashgar Aoshu is established in 2020, parent company before was Guangzhou Xinyuan
• Kashgar Aoshu’s Rakshasa Street: Born to be King will be published by CMGE and another product: Project: SS15 will be published by Bytedance
• Min Chen Health was established in 1994. Since its establishment, it has been rooted in the daily chemical industry ( Shampoo, Conditioner); The company entered in the game industry in Aug 2020
• In 2021, in addition to the acquisition of Kashgar Aoshu, Min Chen Health also acquired Hainan Xingxuan Space-Time Network and established its gaming subsidiary Hainan Xingyu Space-Time Network; In general, game products of the four game companies Min Chen acquired are all in the waifu games field

Tencent keeps investing in PUBG Mobile esports in the Americas

• PUBG Mobile is a huge gaming property with more than $6 billion in lifetime player spending
• Tencent continues to invest in making PUBG more popular in North America and Western markets by investing heavily in PUBG Mobile esports
• The finals of Season 2 for the Americas event has 20 teams competing for the championship, which has a US$6 million prize pool this year, compared to last year’s US$2 million pool
• The game audience is less than 10% of the total audience in Asia
• In the Western markets in Europe and North America, mobile esports is less familiar than it is in Southeast Asia or AsiaYang
• Mobile esports dominates in the Eastern markets; In some countries in Asia, mobile penetration is even higher, with people having two or three phones, connection speed is better too

Google allows third party payment systems in South Korea

• The update comes with plans to comply with a new law in the country, which went into effect in September
• Store's 15% service fee will drop to 11% to reflect costs incurred by external billing options
• Google also noted that third party billing options may not come with the same protection and features offered by the Google Play Store payment system

EA doubles bookings to US$1.85B for September 2021 quarter

• EA second fiscal quarter ended September 30

1. Net bookings: US$1.851 billion, YoY+ 103%
2. Big engagement with its existing games

• Products

1. EA Sports football franchise: 100 million players have engaged across all platforms
2. Apex Legends Season 9 and Season 10: Set new records for the highest active players since Season One
3. The Battlefield 2042: Open beta had 7.7 million players
4. Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes: Surpassed 100 million players life to date

• A look ahead

1. Acquisition spree in 2021
2. Acquisitions of Codemasters, Glu, Metalhead, and the pending Playdemic deal
3. For the upcoming third fiscal quarter ending December 31, analysts expect EA will report earnings per share of US$3.26 on revenues of US$2.74 billion and net revenue to be US$1.75 billion
4. For the full fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, analysts expect EA to report earnings per share of $6.65 on revenues of US$7.58 billion and net revenue to be US$6.925 billion

Activision Blizzard meets expectations in Q3 2021, but stock tanks with 2 game delays

• Activision Blizzard‘s Q3 2021 Performances :

1. Net Bookings: US$1.88 billion, YoY+ 6%
2.  A difficult comparison since the pandemic lifted gaming revenues dramatically a year ago
3. In-game net bookings: US$1.20 billion consistent with the third quarter of 2020
4. Q3 MAU: 390 million players
5. Qverall users: 390 million, flat compared to the same number a year ago
6. Activision’s Q3 2021 users: 119 million, compared with 111 million a year ago and 127 million in Q2 2021
7. Blizzard’s Q3 2021 users: 26 million, compared to 27 million a year ago and flat compared to Q2 2021
8. King’s Q3 2021 users: 245 million, down from 249 million a year ago and 255 million in Q2 2021

• Products

1. Call of Duty net bookings: Mobile grew 40% in Q3 2021 compared to a year ago
2. New game: A strong launch for Diablo II: Resurrected, the remastered title; Diablo Immortal is still in testing for a release on mobile platforms in the H1 2022
3. Candy Crush In-game net bookings: Grew over 20% YoY, with Candy Crush once again the top-grossing game franchise in the U.S. app stores

•  A look ahead

1. Q4 2021: Expects revenues of US$2.91 billion

Century Huatong & Giant Network Q3 2021 Financial Report

• Century Huatong‘s Q3/Q1-Q3 2021 Performances:

1. Q3 2021 Revenue: US$543 million, YoY- 13.12%
2. Q1 – Q3 2021 Revenue: US$1.7 Billion, YoY- 8.35%

• Products

1. In 2021, the company launched various anniversary updates and classic editions for legacy PC titles including Legend of Mir and Aion, Guns of Glory and Kings of Avalon, which are operated by DianDian overseas, continued to perform well
2. The company launched new self-developed games this year including Family Farm Adventure and Valor Legends: Eternity
3.  Shengqu also partnered with Seasun to launch JX 1: Return in October which is a mobile remaster of the classic PC game

• Giant’s Q3/Q1-Q3 2021 Performances:

1. Q3 2021 Revenue: US$79 million, YoY+ 0.94%
2. Q1 – Q3 2021 Revenue: US$241 million, YoY- 10.57%

• Products:

1. Giant Interactive continues to lean on its legacy IP such as Zhengtu and Battle of the Balls
2. The company confirmed that it is investing heavily in next gen experiences such as Project: GAIA which is a shooter game built with Unreal Engine 4
3. The company also announced that it plans to acquire 72.81% of Taomee Interactive which is the developer of Moles World

Sensor Tower: Top 30 Global Revenues of Chinese Mobile Game Publishers in October: Tencent's growth rate hits a new high

• A total of 36 Chinese publishers were shortlisted in the Top 100 global mobile game publisher revenue list, with a total of more than US$2.38 billion, accounting for 40% of the global TOP100 mobile game publisher revenue
• Tencent, NetEase, miHoYo, 37 games ranked as Top1,2,3,4 on the list
• Tencent:

1. With the launch of "League of Legends Mobile" in China and the arrival of the 6th anniversary of "Honor of Kings", Tencent Games' global revenue in October increased by 32% MoM and 23.3% YoY, setting a new historical record

• Ali Games:

1. Thanks to the excellent performance of "Three Kingdoms: Strategy" in China and overseas markets, the revenue of Lingxi in October increased by 16% MoM
2. Driven by the game, revenue from overseas markets accounted for 35.5% of the publisher's October total revenue

• Moontoon:

1. After Mobile Legends: Adventure landing on the Japanese market in June, the game launched in Korean market in mid-October, and rushed to the top 5 Korean mobile game bestseller list at the end of October
2. Driven by the game, Moontoon’s revenue in October increased by 15% MoM

League of Legends: Wild Rift surpasses US$150 million

• League of Legends: Wild Rift has surpassed US$150 million in consumer spending following its year-long global rollout
• According to App Annie, the free-to-play MOBA reached the revenue milestone 370 days after launching in October 2020
• Wild Rift is the second-fastest mobile MOBA to reach the milestone following Honor of Kings which took 249 days
• The US and Brazil are the countries that contribute the highest percentages of consumer spending on Wild Rift
• The majority of consumer spending from Wilf Rift has been generated in the last four months

Tencent targets AAA with TiMi Studios' Honor of Kings: World

• Tencent-owned TiMi Studio Group has unveiled its first entry into the AAA games space as it attempts to reach a more global audience
• Honor of Kings: World is a open-world game for multiple platforms
• TiMi has yet to specify which, but the gameplay trailer and the high-end graphics powered by Unreal Engine, suggest PC and consoles
• Repurposing its flagship franchise into a structure that has proven to be more popular over here may well give Tencent a better chance of establishing the Honor of Kings brand in the West

Netflix launches five games to Android users everywhere

• The platform will host five to start out: Stranger Things: 1984, Stranger Things 3: The Game (both developed by BonusXP), Shooting Hoops, Teeter Up (both developed by Frosty Pop), and Card Blast (developed by Amuzo & Rogue Games)
• The games won’t be available on kids profiles, but they are available to anyone else with a Netflix subscription at no additional cost
• Android app users will be able to see the games either in a dedicated games tab or row on the Netflix app
• The games will be available in multiple languages, with English being the default

 Fortnite is shutting down in China

• After more than two years of testing, Fortnite is shutting down in China on November 15
• The game never officially launched in that territory and was intentionally missing features such as in app purchases
• The battle royale genre has been strictly regulated in China; The domestic games that are approved there have heavy content changes

 ByteDance founder steps down as chairman

• Liang Rubo will reportedly replace Zhang Yiming as ByteDance’s new CEO
• The development comes as the company, along with its peers such as Alibaba and Tencent, faces mounting pressure amid China’s crackdown on internet titans
• It was also recently reported that ByteDance is gearing up for a major business reshuffle and will set up six new units

 The Sandbox raises US$93 million to grow open NFT Metaverse

•  Animoca Brands subsidiary The Sandbox has raised US$93 million following a Series B funding round
•  Led by Softbank Vision Fund 2, the funding round included participation from Animoca Brands, True Global Ventures, Liberty City Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, Kingsway Capital, Com2uS, and more
•  The funding raised will be used to scale the firm’s growth strategy, operations and user acquisition
• To date, The Sandbox has generated over US$144 million in gross merchandise value and has over 500,000 users with a connected wallet in its ecosystem

Phoenix VN’s Solarland is now available in SEA market

• Solarland, a MMORPG mobile game, explore the vast open world, the style of cute Chinese fighters is published by Phoenix VN in SEA market

New Mobile RPG 'Lineage W' Officially Release This Week

• Lineage W officially release this week for both AOS and IOS devices, the game was published by NCSoft
• Adapted the story of Aden World, 150 years later from the original story, players could pick their classes as lord, knight, fairy and mage and explore the dark fantasy world with amazing 3D details
• Players from different regions and countries are connected to the same server and interact AI-based translation chat that supports real-time communication between various language

 Ngạo Thế Kiếm Thần is coming to Vietnam

•  The game is expected to launch on 12 Nov in Vietnam
• This is a MMORPG title with xianxia theme, developed by 9Play

Tuyệt Thế Vô Song is going to be published in Vietnam

• The game is developed by Changyou and will be published by SohaGame on 18 Nov
• This is a MMORPT title with wuxia theme and has done 2 alpha test

Netmarble's new RPG: Seven Knights 2 will be launched globally on 19th Nov

• Seven Knights 2 has accumulated more than 60 million downloads worldwide and is the sequel of Netmarble's representative IP "Seven Knights"
• The game story will describe the world 20 years after the previous game