Solana Ventures, Forte, and Griffin Gaming will invest US$150M in blockchain games

• Solana Ventures, Forte, and Griffin Gaming Partners announced they will invest US$150 million in blockchain games
• The aim is to invest in Web 3 game makers who are creating decentralized games on the Solana blockchain. Such games often use nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that use the transparency and security of the digital ledger of blockchain to authenticate unique digital items
• This is the second blockchain gaming-focused investment initiative Solana Ventures has announced, following a $100 million fund in collaboration with FTX and Lightspeed

 Tencent plans to increase its stake in Supercell, valued at US$11 billion

• Tencent is currently preparing to increase its holdings in Supercell at a valuation of approximately US$11 billion, which is approximately 10% higher than its original valuation of US$10.2 billion
• Tencent's shares in Supercell accounted for 70%
• This year, Supercell not only announced three new IP derivative works in one go in April-"Clash Quest", "Clash Mini", and "Clash Heroes" also released a new product "Everdale" to the global market in August

 Sony To Acquire Developer Valkyrie Entertainment

• Sony's first-party efforts grew stronger today with the acquisition of Seattle-based developer, Valkyrie Entertainment
• Since 2002, Valkyrie has worked on over 100 games, often serving the role of co-developer or content creator
• Valkyrie has worked with Sony several times in the past, helping bring Infamous, God of War, and Twisted Metal to market. The developer will once again be working with Sony Santa Monica on God of War: Ragnarok

 Aniplex to acquire Fate/Grand Order developer Delightworks games division

• Japanese anime and music firm Aniplex has revealed its intentions to acquire the games division of Fate/Grand Order developer, Delightworks
• The acquisition will take place in Spring 2022, once the games division has been split from Delightworks and established as a new company
• Following the acquisition, the newly formed company will work closely with Fate/stay night franchise (on which Fate/Grand Order is based) creator Type-Moon and Aniplex
• Despite its minimal global presence, Fate/Grand Order is one of the highest-grossing mobile games of all time and has surpassed over $5.4 billion in player spending to date

 Meta opens up access to its VR social platform Horizon Worlds

• Meta is finally opening up access to its VR social platform Horizon Worlds. Starting Thursday, people in the US and Canada who are 18 and up will be able to access the free Quest app without an invite
• Horizon Worlds is Meta’s first attempt at releasing something that resembles CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of the metaverse. It’s an expansive, multiplayer platform that meshes Roblox and the OASIS VR world from Ready Player One
• Horizon Worlds requires a Facebook account and lets you hang out with up to 20 people at a time in a virtual space
• A key part of Horizon Worlds is the ability to write basic code that sets rules for how objects work, such as a gun shooting when you press the trigger or a ball bouncing when it touches a surface. The code, which Meta calls script blocks

  Nexon’s subsidiary Netgames and Nexon GT will be merged into Nexon Games

• Merging between Nexon's development subsidiary NetGames and Nexon GT will be finalized through a general shareholders' meeting on February 8 next year
• The merger date is March 31, the merger ratio is 1 to 1.0423647 (Net Games: Nexon GT), and the surviving company following the merger is Net Games
• Park Yong-hyeon, the current CEO of Net Games, will be appointed as the CEO of the new company, and Shin Ji-hwan, the current CEO of Nexon GT, will be a board director
•  It will be a large game company with a market cap of over 1 trillion won (843m usd)

CNG: China 2021 Game Annual Report: Game Market revenue increased by 6.4% to ￥296.5 billion(US$46.6 billion) and game revenue in oversea has a growth of 16.6%

• 2021 Chinese game market Revenue
• ￥296.513 billion(US$46.6 Billion), a YoY+ 6.4%

1. The growth rate has shrunk by nearly 15% compared with the same period last year
2. The number of successful games has decreased YoY
3. The cost of game development and operation and distribution has continued to increase

•  2021 Chinese mobile game market Revenue
• ￥225.538 billion（US$35.4 Billion）, YoY+ 7.6%

1. Mobile game revenue accounting for 76.06% of revenue. The growth rate has shrunk by 25% YoY

• 2021 China Game users
• Amount of game users has reached 666 million, a YoY+ 0.22%
• 2021 Oversea Game market Revenue

1. China's self-developed games in the overseas market reached US$18.01 billion, a YoY+ 16.59%
2.  Revenue from the US market accounted for 32.58%, ranking first. The income from Japan and South Korea accounted for 18.54% and 7.19% respectively
3. Regarding of the game genres in oversea market, SLG games accounted for 41.40%, RPG accounted for 13.46%, and shooting games accounted for 12.96%
4. Matching 3 & MOBA performed outstandingly; The combined revenue of the two genres accounted for 10.91%, a YoY+ 5.5%

• 2021 China Esports
• 140.181 Billion(US$22 Billion), a YoY+ 2.7%

1. Esports game users in China reached 489 million, a YoY+ 0.27%

• Genres & IP

1. Among China Top 100 grossing mobile game, MMORRPG accounted for 19.56% MOBA games accounted for 14.95%; shooting games second accounted for 14.07%
2. These three genres accounted for 48.58% of the total revenue, accounting for nearly half of the total revenue
3. Among the top 100 mobile game product IP types by revenue, self-created IP, accounting for 41%

• China Mobile game revenue trendline (2014 – 2021)

Tencent's overseas subsidiary Funcom is developing the sci-fi IP "Dune:Spice Wars" game

• "Dune: Spice War" is a RTS Strategy game, adapted from the original science fiction masterpiece "Dune", currently, the game has been launched on the steam
• This real-time strategy game with 4X elements, that is, a combination of eXplore (exploration), eXpand (expansion and development), eXploit (operation and development), and eXterminate (conquer) four characteristic gameplays; Produced by Shiro Games, the developer of the critically acclaimed "Northgard"
• In September 2019, Tencent bought all of Funcom's shares from KGJ Capital at a valuation of NOK 1.22 billion (approximately US$134 million) and became Funcom's largest shareholder, accounting for approximately 29% of the shares; By January 2020, Tencent purchased Funcom wholly for US$148 million

Animoca Brands, Bored Ape Yacht Club team up to develop NFT game

• Hong Kong-based unicorn Animoca Brands has partnered with Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) to develop and publish a blockchain game utilizing the latter’s popular Bored Ape non-fungible tokens (NFTs)
• The gaming firm and BAYC creators Yuga Labs expect to release the new game in Q2 2022
• Animoca Brands  recently reported that it received about US$140 million in bookings between January and September 2021

   Google Play Games is on its way to Windows

• Google made an unexpected appearance during the 2021 Game Awards, with the announcement that Google Play Games will be coming to Windows in 2022
• As one of the biggest gaming ecosystems, bringing Google Play Games to PCs, laptops and tablets will enable play without emulation
•  One key benefit of this move is that players will have the ability to switch between Android phones, Chromebooks and Windows PCs with a shared save file. This will enable users to play on their phone when they’re out and continue the same game on their desktop when home, for example

Tencent's ChimeraLand is now open for pre-registration on the Thailand market

• The new MMORPG will be published by Tencent’s SG based subsidiary Proxima Beta
• The pre-reg starts from 15th Dec in Thailand market
•  iOS/Google Play

 New Mobile Strategy 'Dynasty Origin: Conquest' Officially Released

• Dynasty Origin: Conquest is a new mobile strategy game with Three Kingdom theme, published by YOUZU (Singapore) for both AOS and IOS devices
•  The game has a unique 4x4 battle gameplay with 6 types of general, also added cool features such as Strengthening Heroes (Generals), PvP Battle Seasonal Championship and Cross Server Guild vs Guild
•  The game using gacha monetization which allow players to collect and summon their favorite heroes or generals

Rise of Kingdoms is officially coming to Vietnam

• The game will come to Vietnam and published by Gamota with local content
• The title is opened for pre-registration and will release soon early next year

Line Games's UNDECEMBER starts pre-reg on Mobile & Steam in Global market

• The new ARPG is developed by the South Korean game studio: Needs Games, and will be published by Line Games in Q1 2022 in South Korea and globally in H1 2022
• Website/Google Play