1. Tencent acquires majority ownership of Tequila Works, developer of Rime 

BECAME MAJOR INVESTOR IN TEQUILA WORKS

• Tencent gains majority ownership of Madrid-based developer Tequila Works
• Tequila Works is best known for puzzle platformers like 2012’s Deadlight, 2017’s Rime, and the Stadia exclusive Gylt. It’s also working on Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story for publisher Riot Games
• Tequila Workds approaching the limits of what it can accomplish without the support that only a larger company can offer. Rubio and the other Tequila Works executives seem to feel that Tencent will give Tequila Works the resources they need while still providing the studio the freedom to pursue the projects with original IP

2.     Tencent provides "significant" investment to RiffRaff Games

NEW ZEALAND BASED STUDIO REBRANDED FROM MAYDAY

•  Following an investment from Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent, New Zealand-based MayDay has relaunched as RiffRaff Games
• With its "significant" investment Tencent will take a minority stake in the company. However, the exact investment figure or share percentage have not been disclosed
•  Prior to the relaunch, RiffRaff Games was founded as MayDay in 2019 by Joshua Boggs, who operates as the studio’s CEO and creative director
• Boggs previously worked at Loveshack Entertainment where he led the development of the multi-award winning Framed, which sold over four million units
• The studio is currently developing a "spiritually inspired" third-person stealth action game
• RiffRaff Games was unable to confirm at this time whether mobile games will be a focus for the studio

3.     Bilibili invested in Youxigu with a value of US$30 M 

DEVELOPER OF SEVEN HEROES CONTEST

•  Bilibili invested in Beijing Youxigu with a value of US$30 M and holding a share of 11%
•  Youxigu was established in 2014 and is a web/mobile games developer
• Tencent is one of the shareholders in the company

4.     Riot Games Closes Equity Investment In ‘Arcane’ Animation Studio Fortiche Production

THE INVESTMENT COULD LEAD TO A LEAGUE OF LEGENDS CINEMATIC UNIVERSE

• Riot Games has announced it's made an "equity investment" in Fortiche Production, the Paris animation studio behind last year's Netflix smash hit Arcane, which gives the developer and publisher a "significant non-controlling stake in Fortiche."
• Riot and Fortiche have been associated for a long time even before Arcane, first working together on the music video Get Jinxed, and then other shorts including Warriors, Seconds, Pop/Stars and Rise
• Riot want to make many more League of Legends projects with the help of Fortiche. If Riot starts providing more financial backing for Fortiche, allowing the animation studio to expand, then it could develop several other League of Legends shows alongside Arcane

5.     Tencent to shed around 20% of staff, report says

CHINA TECH CRACKDOWN

• Tencent is reportedly axing about 20% of its workforce
•  Tencent’s three biggest units employ nearly 20,000 staff
• The cloud and smart industries business group and the platform and content group will see the largest attrition at 20% and 10% respectively
• The interactive entertainment group, however, will not take much of a hit
• The community group-buying business unit of Alibaba, was planning to shed 20% of its workers
• Baidu had let go of nearly 10% to 15% of its total employees while short-video platform Kuaishou was also looking to reduce its staff by 30%
• In August 2021, ByteDance reportedly cut hundreds of jobs

 6.     The stock price of Chinese game companies welcomes an epic surge; Tencent & NetEase rose 23%, Bilibili rose 40%

THE CHINESE GOVERNMENT STATED IN ECONOMIC MEETING THATWOULD CONTINUES TO SUPPORT VARIOUS TYPES OF COMPANIES TO LIST OVERSEAS

• After the "epic" plunge in the stock market due to war between Russia and Ukraine, both A shares and Hong Kong stocks ushered in a strong rebound on March 16
• Positive messages passed on through the economic meeting held by the Financial Stability and Development Committee of the State Council
• Tencent & NetEase rose 23%, Bilibili rose 40%
• Insight:

1. Despite the gaming companies stock price rose up, China tech crack down hasn’t ceased
2. The Cyberspace Administration of China has introduced a new proposal for rules further restricting access to online services in the country, including games
3. According to the South China Morning Post, the country's Internet regulator wants to introduce a "youth mode" for all online services, including games, livestreams, social media, audio and video services, and more
4. It would be down to internet providers to enforce time limits for minors, as well as caps on online spending. The rules would also apply to hardware firms, with smartphone makers for instance asked to have minor protection software installed by default in their products, or provide clear guidance for users to install one when buying
5. The draft for the new rules is currently open to publish feedback until April 13

 7.     Apex Legends Officially Open Pre-registration in SEA Market

RANKED NO.1 ON IOS FREE LIST IN 10 COUNTRIES

• After Apex Legends was successful with its limited release with good respond from gamers accross the market, EA finally open pre-registration for global market recently this week.
• During the limited release, Apex Legends have been downloaded 1 million times in less than 2 weeks
• There will be many rewards for players during pre-registration time if its reach certain amount of registration numbers, with rewards like banners, character's pose, weapon skin and Bloodhound champion skin

8. NetEase Games’ Sakura Studio outlines three new titles in development for console

An ACTION RPG, A BATTLE GAME WITH FAMOUS IP & A CO-OP ACTION GAME

• NetEase Games‘ Sakura Studio, which was established in July 2020 in both Guangzhou, China and Shibuya, Tokyo, is currently developing three console games, the company announced
• Those include an action RPG in which you go on an adventure with unique allies; a new-style battle game based on a popular series with passionate fans; and an original cooperative action game in which you fight against gigantic enemies

9.     Sensor Tower: The total revenue of the Southeast Asian mobile game market in 2021 reached US$2.8 B 

A YOY INCREASE OF 15%

• Total downloads and revenue of mobile games in the SEA market in 2021 increased by 6% and 15% respectively compared with 2020
• Android users are still the largest source of downloads and revenue in SEA
• In terms of market share, Google Play and App Store accounted for 63.1% and 36.9% of revenue respectively
• In terms of downloads, the total downloads of mobile games in the Southeast Asian market in 2021 is 8.41 billion, an increase of 6.3% YoY
• Indonesia is the highest downloaded market in SEA with 3.1 billion downloads. Vietnam and the Philippines ranked 2nd and 3rd with 1.7 billion and 1.4 billion downloads; Indonesia is also the fastest growing country in SEA in terms of annual downloads
• Download rank

1. Most downloaded game: Garena Free fire / Moonton Mobile legend bang bang / Roblox

• Revenue

1. Top grossing mobile game: Garena Free fire / Moonton Mobile Legend Bang Bang / miHoYo Genshin Impact
2. Revenue growth: A total of 13 mobile games grew by more than US$10 million in the SEA market in 2021 ( Such as Genshin Impact, RO: Next generation

• Chinese mobile games in SEA

1. In 2021, a total of 48 Chinese mobile games shortlisted in the Top 100 best-selling list in Southeast Asia, attracting a total of about US$980 million, accounting for 54% of the total revenue of the Top 100

10.  Korean mobile app game market overview (based on Feb 2022) 

TOTAL KOREAN MARKET TRANSACTION IN FEB 2022 IS 572 B KRW

• Korean game market share by the store: GooglePlay 73.8%, One Store 14.4%, App Store 11.8%
• Korean game market share by a publisher 
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• 70% of all mobile game transactions are from RPG - The number of users of RPG is ranked at 2nd, but it takes up 70% of the whole transaction
• Korean game market share by game genre:

1. RPG 70.8%
2. Strategy 7%
3. Adventure 5% 
4. Sports 3.1%
5. Action 2.5%
6. Simulation 2.2%
7. Casino 2.1%
8. Others 7.3%

11.  HSBC partners with Animoca unit for metaverse foray

TO CREATE INNOVATIVE BRAND EXPERIENCES FOR CUSTOMERS

• HSBC is the latest to join the metaverse frenzy by teaming up with The Sandbox, a decentralized gaming virtual platform, and a subsidiary of Animoca Brands
• HSBC said its metaverse foray is aimed at engaging and connecting with sports, esports, and gaming enthusiasts
• HSBC’s virtual plot on The Sandbox is a 3X3 LAND, a digital piece of real estate on the metaverse
• Other prominent brands on The Sandbox include Adidas, Atari, Care Bears, and The Smurfs

12.  The global NFT market collapsed by a third due to the growing crisis

MARKET SHRANK BY 32% IN MONETRAY TERMS

•  According to CryptoSlam statistics, the total volume of trade in NFT items fell by 32%
• According to data from NonFungible, the average daily sales price of NFTs has dropped from the highest of US$6,889 on January 2 this year to US$1,263 on February 28 and continued to decline
• The number of daily sales has also dropped from the highest single-day 220,000 in August last year to 13,000 now
• The Ethereum blockchain suffered the most, with trading down 35%
• According to experts, the reason was the destabilization of the global economy against the backdrop of the crisis
• Google Trends statistics recorded a drop in user interest in NFT by 60-70%