Tencent's game "Return to Empire" is now eligible for promotion through traffic acquisition strategies on ByteDance's platforms, including TikTok's sister app Douyin, news and information content platform Toutiao, and streaming platform Xigua Video.
On March 23, China's video game regulator approved a total of 86 games for release this month, including titles from major companies such as Tencent, NetEase, 37 Interactive Entertainment, and Leiting Games.
China released the approval information of imported online games in 2023 on March 20, and a total of 27 games were approved. NetEase's "Audition: Everybody Party" and Bilibili's "Pretty Derby," and Tencent's "Merge Mansion" are all on this list.
On March 16th, the 19th Asian Games Hangzhou Committee officially announced that the e-sport project "Legend of Hearthstone", produced by Blizzard Entertainment Entertainment Company and operated by NetEase within China, will not go ahead as the business cooperation between the two parties expired and no agreement has yet been reached to renew the contract.
After NetEase's 2022 financial report was released, there was a more eye-catching change than its revenue and profit indicators: the number of daily active users (DAU) of its casual party mobile game "Eggy Party" has exceeded 30 million, garnering the highest DAUs in NetEase's game history.
On February 23, a puzzle video game named "The Room VR: A Dark Matter" developed by the British game publisher Fireproof Games was officially launched in the app store of Chinese VR device maker PICO, the first time this game has been released on a Chinese platform.
VSPO, a Chinese esports startup specializing in tournaments, venues and production, has obtained a 1.8 billion yuan cash ($265 million) investment from Saudi Arabia’s Savvy Games Group.
Beijing Jianyou Technology, the developer of the pass-through mini game "Sheep a Sheep", which became a national online sensation on China's social media last year, said lately that the company's revenue had exceeded 100 million ($15.6 billion).
NetEase announced on February 15 that it will install the first game version of ChatGPT in China in its mobile game "Justice Online", so that smart non player characters (NPC) can freely conduct dialogue with players and give logical behavioral feedback based on that dialogue.
A game license agreement between Blizzard and NetEase will expire on January 23, and Blizzard has decided not to renew it. Blizzard China latest announcement invited widespread criticism from Chinese web users.
Shanghai-based game company miHoYo on January 12 denied rumors that it had been issuing extremely high year-end bonuses, with some employees that receive a monthly salary of 8,000 yuan ($1,184) taking in a 864,000 yuan bonus ($128,150).
After "Goose Goose Duck," a social deduction game produced by Gaggle Studios, became popular in China, its server crashed repeatedly and the firm had to halt service to carry out maintenance.
Liu Wei, the founder and president of Shanghai-based games publisher miHoYo, said on January 10 that relying on Shanghai's innovative and entrepreneurial environment, the company's global business has made great progress.
NetEase, a leading Chinese internet and game services provider, announced on January 6 that its games division had acquired SkyBox Labs, a Canada-based game studio.
In 2022, only 468 new games obtained approval from Chinese authorities, far less than the 679 approved in 2021. The tightening domestic game market forced NetEase to develop operations in overseas markets.
In February of 2021, Tencent announced that its classic mobile music game "Rhythm Master" would be suspended. On December 26 of this year, however, the team responsible announced that they would start initial technical tests, indicating the game's eventual return.
Blizzard China released a letter from Nathan Lyons-Smith, General Manager of Hearthstone’s production team, to all of the game’s players in China on December 23, saying that it is currently negotiating with some potential new distribution partners.
Blizzard China released a letter from John High, General Manager of World of Warcraft's production team, to all of the game's players in China at midday on December 13, saying that it is currently negotiating with some new potential distribution partners.
When a licensing deal between Activision Blizzard and Chinese game firm NetEase expires on January 24, 2023, many popular games such as World of Warcraft and Hearthstone will suspend services in mainland China.
A software copyright infringement case leveled by ByteDance-owned game developer Moonton against Tencent opened for court sessions in Shanghai on November 29, attracting significant attention from the broader market.
