Tencent acquires a minority stake in UK Game company Playtonic to help team expansion and new game development

• Playtonic was originally founded in 2014, formerly known as Playtonic Games, and almost all of its team members are from Rare, another well-known British game developer
•  Its famous game: Yooka-Laylee’s 3D platform adventure gameplay allow users to perform various tasks on the open platform
•  With the deal with Tencent, Playtonic will follow the company’s plan and strategy to expand around Yooka-Laylee’s IP; The company will expand to three teams and one of the team will focus on a sequel to Yooka-Laylee

Tencent invests in hand motion capture technology British company Ultraleap

• Tencent leds a US$80 million of Series D financing for a British hand motion capture technology company Ultraleap
• The company's core technologies currently include "hand tracking" and "air touch technology”
•  In 2017, Ultrahaptics used the Star Wars IP to allow experiencers to "experience" the feeling of the Force in reality, wielding a lightsaber in the air

Bytedance invested in guangzhou Mengtu: VR Game studio, holds a share of 15%

• Mengtu was established in 2016, and its main business is the customized development of somatosensory, AR, and VR game content
• The company developed Axegend and Rampage
• Bytedance has invested in 54 companies since 2021, a lot of companies are AI companies

Tencent appoints Zoran Roso as marketing director of global publishing

• Tencent has appointed Zoran Roso as its marketing director of global publishing
• Roso previously held marketing positions at Activision Blizzard, Sony, and Take-Two, and has remained a prominent figure within the German games industry for the past 20 years
•  Roso’s employment is part of Tencent’s strategy to expand its global presence outside of China

 China suspends Tencent from updating or launching apps in Mainland China

•  China has suspended Tencent from updating existing apps or launching new apps in Mainland China
• The suspension is part of a "temporary administrative guidance" directed at the tech titan
• Currently, there are more than 70 apps and 100 games operated by Tencent and its mobile games division. Despite the suspension, its apps and games remain functional and available to download
• It is currently unknown how long the suspension will last and the Chinese Ministry has not published any information regarding the ban

Gstar- ‘Odin’ won the best of the game (president prize) in 2021 Korea game award

• 'Odin' and game developer Lionheart Studio won 4 gold medals
• ‘Odin’ ranked first in Korean app market revenue within three days of its release, setting a record of maintaining the number one position for four months.
•  Devsisters 'Cookie Run: Kingdom' won the prime minister prize (grand prize)

  App Annie: Consumers downloaded 14.3B games in Q3, including 3.6B hypercasual games

•  App Annie Q3 2021 Top Apps & games
• Download:

1. Consumers downloaded 14.3 billion games in the third quarter, including 3.6 billion hypercasual games, were responsible for around 33% of game downloads in Q3 2021

• Mobile game Market  Size

1. Mobile games are on track to surpass US$120 billion in spending in 2021, growing 20% over US$100 billion in 2020

•  IDFA:

1. v  IDFA change isn’t a global phenomenon, as it hasn’t affected the Android market at all, and only certain game categories are suffering from the lack of targeting. Those hit hardest by it are social casino games and strategy games

• COVID brought mobile games to the mainstream and accelerated it
• Top Genre

1. Runner Action games, like Sybo’s Subway Surfers, were the No. 1 downloaded sub-genre among the action games genre
2. 4X March-Battle Strategy games are the No. 1 gaming sub-genre (at 10%) by consumer spending, with US$2.4 billion being spent globally

• Publishers:

1.  Eight out of 10 of the top mobile game publishers by worldwide downloads in Q3 2021 were hypercasual games
2. In terms of consumer spend, publishers of match-3 games take up three out of the top 10 rankings globally

Mir 4 exceeded 1.3 million concurrent users

• Mir4’s mobile version has been online for more than a year, and the PC has just been online for 3 months
• And its success is not because of how well the game is optimized and how well the game is played, but because it keenly captures the current Internet trend-the blockchain
• Soon after the PC version was launched, Wemade added "blockchain technology" to "Mir 4", players can use the "black iron" to exchange for common tokens in the game" DRACO", and then through the blockchain wallet WEMIX bound to the game account, DRACO is converted into virtual currency WEMIX at a certain exchange rate
• Wemade plans to launch 100 blockchain games by 2022, and use the self-issued virtual currency Wemix as the base currency in the game to build a blockchain ecosystem

Lilith's first self - dev waifu game Apocalypse Eden

• Lilith’s first waifu mobile game: Apocalypse Eden starts pre-reg in China mainland
• The game is a 3D turn-based CBG
• Tap Tap/Trailer

PUBG: New State made US$2.6 million in its first week

•  Earlier in November, Krafton officially launched PUBG: New State on iOS and Android in more than 200 countries
• As reported by Sensor Tower, the game generated US$2.6 million across the App Store and Google Play within its first week, and 40 million downloads worldwide since its launch
•  The US was the biggest contributor to this figure, followed by Japan, with Turkey was the third-biggest spender
•  PUBG: Mobile surpassed US$7 billion in lifetime player spending, making it the fourth highes-grossing mobile game of all time

Niantic raises US$300M at US$9B valuation as it guns for the real-world metaverse

• Pokémon Go maker Niantic has raised US$300 million from investor Coatue at a US$9 billion valuation as it aims to build the real-world metaverse
• Niantic believes the metaverse can be built with AR images overlaid on the real world
• Niantic wants to develop technology that overlays a virtual world on top of the real world, just as it does layering cute animated Pokémon creatures in the real world
• Sensor Tower reported that Pokémon Go earned more than US$1 billion in revenue in 2020

 Plot of digital land sold for US$2.3m in Axie Infinity

• Vietnam-based blockchain game Axie Infinity has announced that a plot of digital land on its platform was just sold for 550 ETH (around US$2.3 million)
•  According to the company, it’s the largest amount of money ever paid for a single piece of digital real estate
•  Metaverse is estimated to have a revenue opportunity of US$1 trillion across the advertising, social commerce, and digital events sectors, though it did not specify a timeline

Com2uS puts blockchain into 'Colossus' (거상) IP

• Com2uS will add another blockchain ecosystem portfolio following 'Summoners War: Chronicle' through 'Colossus M Jinbirok' (거상 M 징비록)
• Com2uS has signed a global publishing contract with the developer RPG Republic for the new MMORPG 'Colossus M Jingbirok'
• Colossus (거상), the original IP, is a PC online game that has been actively serviced in various overseas countries including Korea, Asia, and North America for 19 years since its release

 Vietnam is planning to abolish many administrative procedures & terms for online game business

• According to the proposed plan, procedures for video game services on G1, G2, G3 networks will be abolished
• This action is to facilitate and reduce compliance costs for businesses.
• This proposal plans to start from 2020 – 2025

 Viễn Chinh Mobile is going to be publish by the end of 2021

• This is a MMORPG title with <800mb client size and Warring States theme
•  The game will be published by SohaGame on 8 December

Thành Cát Tư Hãn - Game of Khans is released in Vietnam by SohaGame

•  This is a vertical SLG title with Mongolia war theme
• The game was published by SohaGame in late November

 Square Enix's Bravely Default: Brillant Lights starts pre-reg on 22nd Nov

• The new RPG from Square Enix starts pre-reg on 22nd Nov in Japan