Sea Capital co-leads US$725m round of blockchain gaming unicorn

• Forte, a US-based blockchain gaming startup, has raised US$725 million in a series B round co-led by Sea Capital – the investment arm of Sea Group – and Kora Management
•  The deal boosts Forte’s total money raised to date to over US$900 million
•  Founded by Josh Williams in 2019, Forte helps game publishers integrate blockchain-based features into their titles
•  The platform allows games to offer embedded token wallets as well as non-fungible token minting and selling features to their users
•  Forte’s platform is still in private testing for selected partners
•  Currently, the company has over 40 game developer partners that serve 15 million players across their games

Mihoyo opens new Montreal studio

• Mihoyo has established its first North American studio in Montréal
•  The new studio will be based in downtown Montréal and plans to scale to over 100 staff within the next year
• miHoYo’s next game will be a "brand-new Triple A open-world action-adventure game featuring shooting-based gameplay within a living, breathing paranormal world"
• MiHoYo is also working with Montréal Investment and Investissement Québec on education and recruitment schemes

Metaverse apps to generate over US$3bn in 2022 - App Annie

• This week mobile analytics firm App Annie released its 2022 Mobile Forecast Report which says that metaverse apps will reach over US$3 billion in consumer spending
• App Annie describes these games as titles that are both creative sandbox and avatar life simulators
• For example, the report notes both Minecraft and Roblox fall into this category
• Additionally, it notes that Fortnite and other games may also fall under the description

 Tencent removes fishing casino games from its distribution channels 

•  Tencent Games has removed fishing casino games from its distribution channels, prompting speculation over whether new regulations are imminent
• Fishing casino games, also known as fish shooting games, are digital games based on the traditional arcade hall games that involved real money
• While Tencent has removed its games, fishing casino games from other developers can still be found on other app stores
•  Poker and mahjong games are no longer approved by China’s gaming regulator since new policies were introduced in 2019

Sea Limited Q3 2021 Financial report

• Q3 2021 Total Revenue

1. Total revenue reached US$2.7 billion, a YoY+ 125%
2.  The revenue was boosted by Shopee’s strong performance
3. Soaring revenue was mainly driven by the growth in the scale of its ecommerce marketplace, coupled with an increase in revenue from value-added services

• Shopee Revenue

1. US$ 1.3 Billion, a 168% YoY+

• Gaming Sector
• US$1.2 Billion, a 29% YoY+

1.  Growth has been slowing as its QAU grew only 0.5% to hit the 729 million mark in the quarter
2. Sea’s paying users also rose 1.1% to 93.2 million

• Meanwhile, the company’s quarterly net loss widened by 34.3% to US$571 million, compared with US$425.3 million last year

 NetEase Q3 2021 Financial report

• Q3 2021 Total revenue & Game revenue

1.  Total revenue: US$3.5 Billion, a YoY+ 19%
2. Game revenue: US$2.5 Billion, a YoY+ 15%

•  Explosive growth of a variety of new products

1. Harry Potter: Magic Awakened:
2. Launched in September and has been ranked first in the iOS best-selling list and download list in mainland China, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan for many consecutive days

• NARAKA: BLADEPOINT:

1. Developed by 24 Entertainment Studio, has been leading the way since its launch in August
2. The sales has now exceeded 6 million copies, setting a new record for the sales of domestic B2P games
3. Next year will release mobile cross platform play

Top Grossing Mobile Games Worldwide for October 2021

• The top-grossing mobile game worldwide for October 2021 was Honor of Kings from Tencent with US$329 million in player spending, which represented 46.2% growth from October 2020
• Approximately 96.7% of Honor of Kings’ revenue was from China, followed by 1.2% from Taiwan
• League of Legends: Wild Rift entered the worldwide top 10 mobile games by revenue for the first time in October, generating approximately US$108 million thanks largely to its launch in China, which accounts for about 93% of the title’s total player spending for the month
• LoL has steadily rolled out worldwide since October 2020, but has found much of its success in Asia–where MOBAs typically generate most of their revenue–with China already ranking as its most lucrative market
• The global mobile games market generated US$7.5 billion from player spending across the App Store and Google Play in October 2021, marking an increase of 10.5% YoY
• The No. 1 market for global revenue in October 2021 was the United States, which accumulated US$2.1 billion, or 28.3% of total player spending worldwide; Japan ranked No. 2 for revenue at approximately 20%, followed by China, where Google Play is not available, at 18.7%

Since the iOS 14.6 update, the CPI of hard-core mobile games has skyrocketed by 78%, while casual games have dropped by 37%

• According to "Business Of Apps", the latest data from the mobile growth platform Moloco shows that since the iOS 14.6 update, the global casual mobile game advertising costs have fallen by 38%, but the hard-core mobile game advertising costs have skyrocketed by 78%
• From the platform perspective, the average installation cost of casual games represented by arcade, card and puzzle mobile games on the iOS platform has dropped by 45%, while the Android platform has dropped by 30%
• Although the advertising cost of iOS has soared since the 14.6 version of the system was updated and launched, as more and more publishers explicitly require users to authorize or deny access to the Uniform Device Identifier (IDFA), the cost of acquiring customers for casual mobile games It also began to decline gradually as a large number of players agreed to access IDFA
• The release of iOS 14.6 has changed the game advertising strategy of mobile marketers
• After the iOS 14.5 update push, the advertising costs of hard-core mobile games dominated by action, racing, and card games have risen on both iOS and Android platform
• After the iOS 14.6 update, the average cost per installation of hard-core mobile games on the Apple platform continued to maintain a rapid growth trend, while the Android side dropped by 8%

Blockchain game companies raised US$1.9B in past nine months

• NFT game companies have raised US$1.9 billion in the first nine months of 2021, according to mergers and acquisitions advisory firm Quantum Tech Partners
• The number didn’t include last Friday’s announcement that blockchain game platform Forte had raised $725 million — a big number for Q4
• Q3 alone saw record merger and acquisition game company transactions of US$15.58 billion, bringing the total for the first nine months of 2021 to US$34.36 billion — about double the number from 2020
• Among the biggest deals, in games, NetMarble bought SpinX Games for US$2.19 billion, and Tencent bought Sumo Group for US$1.23 billion. EA spent US$3.5 billion in the past nine months on acquisitions of Glu Mobile and Playdemic, while Bytedance spent US$4.775 billion

 Com2uS is bringing Summoners War: Chronicles to blockchain

•  Gamevil Com2uS has signed a deal to build a blockchain ecosystem with Terraform Labs, which runs the Terra blockchain
•  Gamevil Com2uS will also integrate Project C2X with its existing Hive game-specific social platform via a blockchain-exclusive SDK
•  As part of the deal, Gamevil Com2uS will issue its own cryptocurrency, currently called C2X
•  As well as games, the new ecosystem will support a NFT marketplace - launching in Q1 2022 - including globally popular K-content such as TV shows, music and movies

 PUBG: New State surpasses 20 million downloads in 5 days

•  Krafton’s most recent entry into the PUBG franchise, PUBG New State, has surpassed 20 million downloads within five days since launch
•  The game has reached the top of the charts on the App Store and Google Play in over 160 countries, including the US, Japan, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, and Germany

 Seoul to become the first city to enter the metaverse

• Provisionally called ‘Metaverse Seoul’, it intends to create a virtual communication ecosystem for all areas of its municipal administration
• This would include economic, cultural, tourism, educational and civic service, in three stages from next year
• The metaverse refers to a shared 3D virtual world in which all activities can take place using augmented and virtual reality equipment
• The South Korean capital has invested KRW 3.9 billion (about €2.8 billion) into the project, as part of the city’s mayor Oh Se-hoon's Seoul Vision 2030 plan

CMGE announced metaverse plan for Chinese Paladin(仙剑奇侠传）IP

• One of the project in Chinese Paladin IP Metaverse is a new open world game based on famous IP; The project has been established for one and a half years and the team has more than 150 people and is still expanding. It is planned to be tested in Q3 next year and is expected to be officially launched in 2023
• The new open world game will support multiple platforms, covering PCs, consoles, mobile, VR and cloud games; The game plans to use VR, cloud games and other emerging technologies to strengthen the immersive gaming experience
• CMGE will also implant NFT mode into the game
•  The game will have a platform can provide tools for cross-terminal communication, content co-creation and monetization
• Metaverse is currently in the stage of social + games, starting with the game method, which is the clearest and easiest way to be accepted by people
• CMGE bought Chinese Paladin IP in 2021 with a price of US$100 million

Tuyệt Thế Vô Song has been released by SohaGame

• This MMORPG title is developed by ChangYou and published by Soha
• The game is officially released on 18 November

Thiên Hạ Vô Song is going to be release in late November

• This is a xianxia MMORPG title and doesn't have pre-register plan
• The title will officially release on 24 Nov by Nexfun

FF VII The First Soldier is launched on 17th Nov globally

• Square Enix’s new battle royale FF VII The First Soldier is launched on 17th Nov Globally
• iOS/Google Play

Gravity will launch two new mobile games based on RO IP in 2022

• Gravity announced 2 new mobile based on RO IP in 2022 in G-Star 2021
• Two games are Ragnarok Begin and Ragnarok V: Returns
•  Two games are all MMORPG and RO:Begin will be cross-platform product
• Ragnarok Origin will be launched in H1 2022 in Taiwan & Hong Kong, and launch in SEA in H2 2022

Gran Saga is launched in Japan on 18th Nov and pre-reg has exceeded 4 million

• The new MMORPG is developed by Npixel made with unreal engine 4 and pre-reg has reached 4 million