Over the past year, all eyes may be on Tencent's continuous acquisition and investment in the global gaming market, but behind the scene, its overseas game publishing business is picking up steam.
Most recently,"Goddess of Victory: Nikke", published by Level Infinite, Tencent's international publishing label, is causing a stir in the global mobile game market.
The game, which combines hit elements such as voluptuous anime female characters, hardcore sci-fi settings, adrenaline-pumping shooters, and addictive gacha mechanics, topped the App Store and Google Play in several regions, including North America, Korea and Japan, shortly after its launch on Nov. 4. It is currently rated 4.3 stars out of 5 on Google Play in the US with over 300,000 reviews.
“What makes Goddess of Victory: Nikke unique is the dual strategies of being a shooter built around a collectible card game. The game is easy to play on the go, with intuitive controls and a variety of gameplay styles, including puzzle solving and co-op battles,” IGN introduced.
According to report from data intelligence firm Sensor Tower, the game generated more than $100 million revenue in its first month of release, A whopping 43.3% of the game's total revenue comes from Japan, followed by South Korea with 27.2% and the US with 15.2%.
By comparison, Genshin Impact, the hit open-world role-playing game, earned $245 million in its first month, with $125 million of that coming from outside China.
While the success of the release is largely due to the dedicated work of its developer, South Korean studio Shift Up, it might not have happened without the support of Level infinite.
Officially launched last Dec., Level Infinite is tasked with helping Tencent move beyond its role as a game developer and become a major player in global game distribution.
With dual headquarters in Amsterdam and Singapore, it provides studio support and services, ranging from technical and production assistance, “Games as a Service” (GaaS) and local/global market insight and analysis, as well as assistance with esports integration and international publishing.
It's no secret that Tencent wants a bigger slice of the international game publishing market. Even before setting up Level Infinite, the world's largest game company was using its global reach to drive regional marketing and publishing initiatives that most studios and developers would have struggled to do on their own. At the time, the business was operating under the "Tencent Games Global" brand.
For instance, it assisted New Zealand-based Grinding Gear Games in promoting its tittle Path of Exile in the North American market through influencer partnerships, PR and community resources.
Level Infinite’s launch represents the next stage in Tencent Games’ evolution as a global publisher and trusted brand, according to Liu Ming, Global CEO of Tencent Games. "We look forward to bringing gamers high-quality titles wherever and however they play,” the executive said.
Also, the name Level Infinite downplays its connection to the parent company, suggesting that the business not only serves Tencent-owned studios, but also hopes to attract more third-party developers.
In order to expand its influence in the global distribution field, Tencent hired game marketing veteran Zoran Rosso as Marketing Director of both Tencent Games Global and Level Infinite in Nov. last year. Prior to joining Tencent, Roso held marketing roles at Activision Blizzard, Sony and Take-Two and has been a prominent figure in the German gaming industry for the past 20 years.
In October, Level Infinite made its first major third-party game publish, that is, "Tower of Fantasy," a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Chinese company Perfect World. During its first month of worldwide release, “Tower of Fantasy” presented gratifying figures, earning over $44 million.
As Levels Infinite expands its footprints in the global publishing landscape, Tencent can move closer to its target of reducing its reliance on the domestic market and growing its revenue from abroad. Previously, Tencent Games unveiled that it hoped that 50% of its revenue would come from games published overseas.
More effort and time will be needed to reach this goal. In the third quarter of 2022, Tencent's revenue came in at about 140 billion yuan ($20.1 billion), down 2% year-on-year. Domestic game revenue accounted for 22% of total sales, and international game revenue accounted for 9%, thus, game revenue from overseas contributes about 29% to the entire game sector.
With assistance from “Goddess of Victory: Nikke”, overseas sales of Tencent's mobile game offerings have gone up by 12.5%, Sensor Tower’s data showed. The brand-new tittle was the highest-grossing title published by Tencent in Nov., equaling twice the international sales of runner-up, "Call of Duty".
Speaking about Tencent Games' strategy and growth at GamesBeat Summit 2022, Liu Ming, global CEO of the department, said: "Our vision for our global games business is to build a global ecosystem that integrates gaming, developing and publishing systems by closely connecting, and aligning the development and publishing functions".
According to a Korean media Money Today Network report on Dec. 19, Tencent has acquired a 20% stake in Shift Up, becoming the second largest shareholder of the studio after founder Kim Hyung-tae.