tencent-holdings-limited
Latest
Take-Two, Tencent collaboration 'NBA 2K Online' launches Oct. 24 in China
NBA 2K Online, the free-to-play NBA simulation created for China by 2K in conjunction with Tencent Games, will launch on October 24. The game went into beta this past June and is the first major release in China for Take-Two, which announced plans for this initiative back in 2009.The release date of an online sportsball game in China isn't the interesting part here, so much as the context. Tencent Holdings Limited has become quite the player over the past three years since Take-Two's plans were first announced. There's Tencent's relationship with Activision over Call of Duty Online, its acquisition of Riot Games and, most interestingly, its minority interest in Unreal Engine's lord and master Epic Games.
Epic Games sells minority interest to Tencent
Epic Games, creator of the ubiquitous Unreal Engine and major franchises like Gears of War and Infinity Blade, announced this morning a minority stake sale to China's Tencent Holdings.The terms of the deal were not disclosed, but you can be assured it was for a ton of cash (technically speaking). Epic will continue to "operate independently and seek to further expand its game franchises across multiple platforms."Tencent has slowly made strategic purchases in the States, its highest profile acquisition being Riot Games last year, developers of cash-raining League of Legends.The relationship between Epic and a Chinese company will also make it easier for the former to grow in China, a region in which it has been very interested in expanding – with some politically laughable results.
Zynga passes EA in estimated worth rankings
Like a horde of unstoppable zombies, social titles are devouring the domestic and worldwide gaming industry at an alarming rate. The latest example of the brain-sucking apocalypse comes courtesy of a Bloomberg report on Farmville-maker Zynga's estimated worth. It clocks in at $5.51 billion, placing it squarely in front of industry titan Electronic Arts ($5.22 billion). Despite potential hits like BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic waiting in the wings, EA seems to be losing ground in the war for your online entertainment dollar. Since March 1st, EA's shares have declined 6.3 percent, while Zynga's estimated value has more than doubled in the same period. That said, while Zynga has leap-frogged EA, they still have a ways to go to catch Activision ($13.9 billion estimated worth), as well as China's Tencent Holdings ($43 billion).
Take-Two announces push into Asia with NBA 2K Online
Did you know that at 1.3 billion people, the mainland Chinese population encompasses around 1/6th of the world's population? It's true! This might help to explain why Take-Two Interactive announced today not just the launch of NBA 2K Online -- an online basketball game for the Asian market -- but also the creation of Take-Two Asia, a new satellite office for the BioShock publisher. The game is being co-developed by Take-Two and Chinese game company Tencent Holdings Limited for distribution in China and "other key markets" (notably Taiwan, South Korea and Southeast Asia). Information on the game's pricing structure or what it looks like or, well, anything really is rather scant, though we do know that it will include "all of the NBA teams, as well as current and retired NBA players." Will the game be free-to-play with microtransactions? Will it ever be offered on this side of the Pacific? Will we be able to showboat our jersey in a raucous celebration of happiness a la Kobe Bryant when we dunk on fools? We just don't know.
