2 replies to this topic

[Elizander]

https://www.windowsc...i-entertainment

I really liked the game, but I didn't like it that much to keep it on my PC after this news.

[D V Devnull]

Thanks for the heads-up, Elizander, on what Tencent is up to out there. It feels like they're getting their claws into too many things, and it's actually scary given how that company has to please the Chinese Government in order to stay in business. Effectively, anything going through them loses any privacy that it should have had, meaning that for those who value their privacy, anything linked to Tencent in any way must be dropped from our computers.

EDIT :: That said, I should note I don't have anything against people of oriental heritage. To anyone who reads this post, please avoid taking my posting the wrong way. I only have problems with Government operations which over-reach, infringe upon, and violate natural human rights... In this case, rights to privacy and non-violent free speech, the kind of things that all people are supposed to have.

~D. V. "sad that something else in this world is lost due to Chinese Government influence and overreach" Devnull

Edited by D V Devnull, 25 January 2021 - 11:43 PM.

[Anjian]

Tencent is basically trying assure they have first gibs for licensing the game in China.

Its about money and gaming in China, with its 1.4 billion population with millions of player whales, is a better investment than FAANG.

Tencent is going to be the first Asian company to have over a billion US dollars in valuation, even more than Alibaba.

One thing Tencent and its competitor, Netease, is very good in doing, is making PC level action games into mobile. Game developers in the west (except in Russia it seems) have issues, probably the lack of money, resources, time and the sheer experience, to develop hiqh quality action games in mobile after focusing too much on PC and console, and so they are outsourcing them to Netease and Tencent. For example CoD Mobile, although published by Activision, is developed by Tencent's elite Timmi Studios. Both companies are now no 1 and no. 2 in mobile game revenue, and mobile games is now 60% of all gaming revenue, moving to 70%.



As for the Chinese government connection I doubt that after the government has been launching regulators and investigations against online companies such as Alibaba and Tencent. Like remember they pulled Ant Group's 37 billion dollar IPO last October, and that would be the biggest IPO ever in the history of the world. In 2018, the government pushed regulations that required that games have to be approved after government inspection. This means thousands and thousands of new games were not approved, causing huge revenue loss to Tencent and Netease and that caused their stock to drop by tens of billions. As a result many Chinese game developers are branching overseas instead, and that's partly you are seeing with Tencent here. It is rumored that Tencent may try to acquire EA or Activision next.

Here is an example of the thriving gaming and esports scene in China. Its bigger than Super Bowl in the States.



It doesn't match with the Socialist narrative however of the Chinese government. Their officials call games "electronic heroin" and create camps to "detox" Internet addicts. Now the Chinese government is creating a digital currency system that may be and eventually in competition against mobile payment systems like WeChat Pay and Alipay.