Tencent is the world’s biggest video game company

Tencent, the tech giant in China, isn’t yet well-known. While its size and acquisitions have made frequent headlines, its presence has remained understated relative to competitors like Amazon and Google, with the name occasionally peppered into conversations as an example of China’s burgeoning influence on technology and entertainment around the world.

Tencent, however, is everywhere in China. It’s behind the nation’s most popular messaging app, WeChat, with over 1.2 billion monthly active users. It’s the behemoth that created QQ.com, one of the country’s largest web portals and the world’s fourth most visited website. And with Tencent Music, it also owns the majority of China’s music services, with 841 million active users.

It’s also China’s — and the world’s — biggest game company. We recently took a look at its operations and the assets it holds, as it has a larger international presence.

Tencent began its acquisition of Riot Games, an international gaming studio in 2011, and has continued to do so ever since. And as one of the largest tech conglomerates in the world, it also wants to build the metaverse — to construct a sprawling, digital universe that doubles up as a diverse gaming platform, made up of various IPs. During the tech behemoth’s third-quarter results earning call in 2021, its usually reticent CEO, Pony Ma Huateng, spoke about the company’s vision for the metaverse, saying that Tencent currently has the resources to develop its version of the idea. To Tencent, that path can be chartered via a mix of video games and a gamified social media experience — or a real world experience that’s supplemented by both augmented reality and virtual reality.

With one of its subsidiaries TiMi Studio Group as its primary gaming subsidiary, the company has already begun to lay the foundation for this project. Codenamed “F1,” this studio will span across China, the United States, Canada, and Singapore, and it’s the company’s first team under a new “Future” label.

Of course, Tencent is far from the only tech giant looking to build a macrocosm of virtual services and environments; NetEase, Epic Games, and Facebook’s parent company Meta, among others, are all gunning to forge their own hyperconnected virtual worlds. Tencent’s size and reach across multiple industries is what sets it apart from the rest of these companies. Its investments include gaming, social media and television.

When it comes to the games part of that, Tencent’s dominance is prodigious yet stealthy. By revenue, it’s the world’s largest video game publisher, with approximately $6.7 billion in game revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020. At 32% of its profit, online games account for a large portion. Many products are targeted at the Chinese domestic market and target players on mobile devices. These products include Peacekeeper Elite This is the Chinese translation of PUBG MobileIt is wildly loved by many. Honor of KingsIt is China’s most prominent MOBA game. Then there is Riot Games’ League of Legends, a game that is now Tencent’s flagship PC game in China, and whose studio was also completely bought out by Tencent, with the firm finalizing its purchase of Riot Games in 2015. The company’s streak of game industry investments has continued at a rapid pace; research firm Niko Partners estimated that, on average, for most of the first half of 2021, Tencent closed one games deal every 2.5 days.

It’s clear that Tencent is expanding its games portfolio by setting its sights globally; 25% of its games revenue is now derived from international markets, and that figure grew by 20% year-on-year in the third quarter of 2021. Tightening regulations from the Chinese government on its local gaming industry — alongside those of film, popular entertainment, and tech industries — have also contributed to Tencent’s push outside of China, despite the country having the world’s biggest gaming market. Yet the narrative around Tencent’s rapid expansion is often remarked upon with a sense of unease, fueled by anti-Chinese rhetoric. Take for instance how Tencent’s investments have drawn the scrutiny of even the U.S. government, while Epic Games’ CEO, Tim Sweeney, felt the need to address the company’s investment on Twitter, including rumors about how the Epic Games Store is covert spyware used to steal personal data.

However, Tencent is embroiled in controversy inside China. Since 2017, claims of sexual harassment have surfaced. Social media has seen videos of women employees removing caps from plastic bottles and placing them between their male coworkers’ thighs at company events. Tencent issued an apology via Zhihu (a social media platform) for their mistake.

Then there are accusations of plagiarism, with many Tencent’s products and services being largely similar to those of its competitors. One of Tencent’s fiercest critics is Jack Ma Yun, the co-founder of tech conglomerate Alibaba, who has said that “the problem with Tencent is the lack of innovation; all of their products are copies.” China’s tech scene is notoriously tolerant of imitations — there’s even a colloquial term for this trend known as “Copy to China.” But despite this culture, many say Tencent’s transgressions have been more egregious because of how frequent — and at what scale — these infringements have taken place. Tencent launched a Groupon-like online shopping service after the success of Meituan, a Chinese ecommerce site. Its instant messaging service, Tencent QQ, is a revamp of QICQ, itself a clone of AOL’s ICQ (Tencent lost an intellectual property lawsuit against AOL in 1998). And there’s QQ Farm, a farm management simulator game, which resembles the social game Happy FarmYou can also find other useful information at

These scandals have yet to stem Tencent’s investment fervor, though. Unlike investments by companies like French media conglomerate Vivendi SE, whose purchases have often been likened to hostile takeovers, Tencent has favored investing “in a ‘silent’ manner.” Daniel Ahmad, a senior analyst at Niko Partners who gave that quote in an interview with Financial Times, elaborated that Tencent’s executives “do not rebrand their portfolio companies and generally leave those companies to continue the excellence that made them attractive to Tencent in the first place.” From Riot Games to Grinding Gear Games, the studio behind Path of Exile, Tencent has invested in more than three dozen international gaming companies to date (we’ve had to update the list featured in our sidebar multiple times since we began working on this story).

The bulk of these investments have been consolidated under Tencent Games, the company’s game publishing arm, which also houses five internal corporate groups: TiMi Studio Group, NeXT Studios, Aurora Studio Group, Morefun Studio, and Lightspeed & Quantum Studio Group. The company also recently established Level Infinite, a game publishing division within Tencent Games. This division is dedicated to publishing both Tencent’s games and others internationally, while providing support to games such as Dune: Spice Wars, Bloodhunt – Vampire: The Masquerade, Warhammer 40,000: DarktidePlease see the following: Don’t Starve: Newhome, as well as games from Tencent’s internal studios.

Eddie Chen, Chief Strategy Officer of Tencent Games spoke recently to Level Infinite’s podcast. He stated that the new division was more about distinguishing itself as a gaming entity from its parent company than it is distancing from the Tencent brand. “I think it’s really about a brand that better represents what we want to strive for, and it’s just different from what Tencent represents today,” said Chen. “It’s less about necessarily separating from, sort of, the Chinese business overall, but more about a vision and ambition of really leading the industry when it comes to games, and being at the forefront of games.”

(There also used to be a Tencent Boston, established in 2008 — the only game the studio produced was a Facebook browser game known as Robot Rising. With its 2013 closing, it appears the studio has been taken under. official Twitter account ceasing updates around that time.Chinese gamers have referred to it as “the most mysterious Tencent Studio”, due to the mystifying absence of information or portfolio.

Here is a rundown of each of Tencent’s internal corporate groups:

TiMi Studio Group

TiMi Studio Group developed smash hits Pokemon Unite The Mobile Call of Duty. It was known for a MOBA, which was criticized by the Chinese media. An advocacy group and the Chinese media pointed out that the MOBA is one of the most common causes of youth videogame addiction in China. Its popularity in the country even led to an update in China’s Minors Protection Law. This game is Honor of KingsThe game is one of the most popular and highest-grossing ever, with over 100 million active users per day in 2020. We hope to duplicate some of this success abroad and create a mobile version. League of Legends, TiMi also developed Arena of ValorAn adaptation Honor of KingsIt was designed to be more responsive to international players. The group also established the King Pro League mobile esports league, which is centered around Honor of Kings.

TiMI is now focusing its resources on developing triple-A titles with greater international appeal. Apart from seven studios located in China, TiMi has also opened three studios across North America, including one in Los Angeles and one in Seattle. The studio group recently opened a studio in Montreal. TiMi Montreal is developing triple-A, service-driven, open-world games, while TiMi Seattle is working on a yet-to-be-named cross-platform, first-person shooter, with TiMi Los Angeles being the North American studios’ management and operations hub. Collectively, the Los Angeles and Seattle studios can be called Team Kaiju.

NExT Studios

NExT Studios, the latest internal Tencent group was launched in April 2017. It has created some of Tencent’s most unique games. NExT Studios has largely steered clear of mobile and free-to-play offerings from other IPs, instead leaning into a vision for games centered around the studio’s culture of originality; that is, a vision that encourages anyone across the team to develop and influence the direction of its games. NExT Studios has continued to develop console and PC-based titles that are based upon original IPs. This philosophy led to many small sized, indie-like games created in the studio’s initial years. This is the reason why so many early games of it have an indie vibe, including audio-driven mystery and puzzle games. UnheardThis game requires that players listen to and eavesdrop on other sounds and find clues to solve the puzzle. BipedA pint-sized action adventure game for co-operative play about robots who travel across fantastical terrains to solve puzzles.

“We […] want to release games from an approach that prioritizes and respects the personal expressions of their developers,” said Shen Li, the general manager of NExT Studios, in an interview with Chinese site Gameres. “It’s not always up to the director or producer to propose the direction for the game; in fact, anyone on the team can suggest their own ideas.”

In recent years, the studio has developed more “AA” styled — or mid-sized — games, which has seen the studio producing more conventional offerings that feature high-tech, high-fidelity flair, often without losing the scrappiness and creativity of indie offerings. A recent example of such a title is “AA”, which will be released in the near future. SYNCED: Off-PlanetThe 2021 Game Awards announced the tactical shooter, “”

NExT is also carving a niche as a studio that is focused on creating next-gen motion capture and photogrammetry technology — tech that will help it create games with more realistic graphics and animation. This technology includes projects such as Siren, a digital personality that’s powered by a face rendering software, which relies on real-time motion capture and boasts realistic facial details. This software is also used in SYNCED: Off-Planet to create realistic-looking digital characters. Matt AI is another AI project, which aims at creating digital humanoids that look real. It uses facial motion capture technology instead of AI.

Lightspeed & Quantum Studio Group

Established in 2008, Lightspeed & Quantum Studio Group has a long history of creating games across different genres — from casual card and mahjong games to MMORPGs. Lightspeed & Quantum is currently working with Respawn to produce a mobile version of Apex LegendsBoth in China, and worldwide.

Most well-known for Peacekeeper EliteThe reskinned version PUBG Mobile that was tweaked to meet China’s tightening regulations on the games industry, Lightspeed & Quantum is currently made up of five studios — Quantum, Anyplay, Tiki, Lightspeed LA, and Uncapped Games — with gaming veterans holding leadership roles in these studios. With these studios, it’s also looking towards creating large-scale, triple-A titles, which is aligned to Tencent’s vision to expand its presence overseas.

“Our main focus is still on mobile games, but we hope to be able to transition towards making games for other platforms eventually,” said Chen Yu, general manager of Lightspeed & Quantum in a 2020 interview.

Many of the group’s Western studios are in the midst of developing their own portfolio of games. LightSpeed LA’s producer is Steve Martin. He was previously at Rockstar. His team includes former employees from Rockstar, 2K Games and Insomniac. Not much has been shared about LightSpeed LA’s first game, other than it’s going to be an open-world title made for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. And then there’s the newest addition to the Lightspeed & Quantum collective: Uncapped Games, a team that’s looking to create the next big real-time strategy game. To that end, Lightspeed & Quantum have recruited Blizzard veterans David Kim, Jason Jughes, and Zhongshan Zhang to lead the team.

Aurora Studio

Aurora Studio in China is synonymous with MMO offering Moonlight Blade Legend of Xuan Yuan), which is based on the Chinese fantasy setting of xianxia. This popular literature genre in Asia combines elements from Chinese mythology and Chinese martial arts fiction to create a unique literary experience. Its latest creation, however, is what caught international attention. Ring of Elysium, a free-to-play battle royale game that managed to carve out a niche among heavyweights of the genre — Fortnite PUBG — when it was released in 2018, with seasonal content and additional features to the battle royale formula, as popularized by PUBG.

Morefun Studio Group

Morefun Studio Group, compared to other Tencent corporates, has maintained a lower profile. Its current portfolio of games — mostly made up of mobile games from original and existing IPs such as Naruto and One Piece — have been developed predominantly for the Chinese market so far.

Tencent’s many gaming investments and metaverse plans have made clear its determination to make gaming an important driver of its success. Tencent is a strong force in international gaming thanks to its acquisitions of overseas studios and the growing repertoire of Tencent Games as well as its corporate group Tencent Games.

As with the rapid consolidation happening in the West at the moment, that power brings questions of monopolies and leverage over competitors, and Tencent isn’t the only Chinese tech behemoth pursuing the global games market. NetEase and Billibilli have also made in-roads into toppling Tencent’s position in gaming, while declaring their intentions to create their own metaverses.

Given Tencent’s rapid expansion in recent years, what’s certain is that Tencent has been relentless about its ambition — and the odds are high that more games will be entwined with the Tencent brand in the years to come.