Tencent Holdings, the world’s largest video games publisher, is introducing the popular shooting game Valorant to mainland China. Developed by Tencent subsidiary Riot Games, Valorant’s launch in China aims to strengthen Tencent’s presence in the domestic market. Riot Games, known for creating League of Legends, a game that contributed to Tencent’s global gaming success, considers Valorant its “most important game published this year.” Chinese players can start enjoying Valorant from Wednesday, three years after its global debut.
Since its global launch in June 2020, Valorant has gained an impressive following, with over 14 million players as of July 2023, according to data from Tracker Network. The game also stood out as the most-watched first-person shooter (FPS) title on gaming streaming platform Twitch in 2022. However, Valorant faced regulatory hurdles in China and had to wait until December 2022 to secure approval for publication in the country. Beijing had imposed an 18-month freeze on foreign game approvals, which it lifted in December.
During a press conference held in Shanghai in June, Steven Ma Xiaoyi, a senior vice-president at Tencent, acknowledged the growth potential of PC games. He emphasized the significance of Valorant’s emergence in challenging industry beliefs that PC game growth was slowing down. Valorant received approval as one of the 44 imported games sanctioned by China’s National Press and Publication Administration in December 2022. This marked the first batch of game licenses granted in 18 months. Subsequently, an additional 27 licenses for domestic release of foreign games were issued in March.
In addition to Valorant, Tencent has several other approved titles that it plans to bring to the Chinese market this year. This includes the South Korea-developed PC game Lost Ark. However, due to the lack of licenses in China, the backlog of imported games has hindered Tencent’s progress, according to Cui Chenyu, a senior analyst at research firm Omdia. Tencent faces growing competition from local competitors such as miHoYo and NetEase, as its domestic game sales only rose 6% in the first quarter of 2023, compared to an 11% increase in overall revenue.
Tencent is determined to invest over 1 billion yuan (RM647.19 million) in promoting Valorant’s product and esports development over the next three years. Following the conclusion of open testing for Valorant in China, players have expressed excitement for the game. Valorant will directly compete with other FPS titles including CS: GO from Valve Corporation, Overwatch from Blizzard Entertainment, and Apex Legends from US-based Electronic Arts. Liu Jie, a 23-year-old player from Shanghai, shared their enthusiasm, stating, “I’ve already spent over 2,000 yuan (RM1,294) on the testing version. I just hope the domestic game will not have too much content removed compared with the international version.”
Credit: The Star : Tech Feed
