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'League of Legends' studio buys a fighting game powerhouse
Riot Games, the studio in charge of League of Legends, acquired Radiant Entertainment and all of its fighting game technology this week. Radiant is staffed by popular figures in the fighting game community, including former Street Fighter commentator and Capcom community manager Seth Killian. The studio was created by Tom Cannon and Tony Cannon, who are also founders of the world's largest fighting game tournament, the Evolution Championship Series. Radiant has two titles under its belt: the free, online fighting game Rising Thunder and the town-building simulator Stonehearth.
'League of Legends' is now fully owned by China's Tencent
After buying most of the studio behind League of Legends in 2011, Tencent now owns it outright. California studio Riot Games told employees that the Chinese internet giant behind WeChat had purchased the remaining equity in the company. There was no word about the price, but League of Legends reportedly makes $1 billion a year via in-app purchases. Tencent should be able to afford it, though, as it was recently valued at $200 billion, ahead of China's Alibaba. Tencent also owns big stakes in Activision Blizzard, the maker of World of Warcraft and Call of Duty, and Gears of War developer Epic Games.
Apple removes malware-infected apps from Chinese App Store
Last week we reported how a number of malware-ridden apps were found on the Chinese version of Apple's App Store. The iPhone-maker has since confirmed the offending apps have been removed. The malicious apps were reportedly created using a bogus version of Xcode (the developer tool for iOS apps) that snuck hidden, malicious features into genuine apps with a program called "XcodeGhost". Curiously, a tactic also considered by the CIA at one point. Exactly how many apps were affected is unclear, but popular titles in the country like WeChat, and car-hailing app Didi Kuaidione are reported to be on the list. Security firm Qihoo360 Technology is reporting at least 344 were removed from the store.
Tencent's kids smartwatch is both cute and connected
While there are already a handful of connected wearables for kids in the market, here's one with a more complete set of features. Courtesy of Chinese tech giant Tencent, this QQ Watch comes with a 1.12-inch 128 x 128 OLED screen, IP65 ruggedness, an SOS call button and its very own 2G radio. More importantly, though, the tracking functionality uses GPS, WiFi and cellular triangulation simultaneously for higher accuracy. There's even a 0.3-megapixel camera on board, and since the watch can be hooked up to WeChat, lost kids can send photos to their parents as an extra clue for locating them. Battery life? It's good for up to five days, apparently, after which you can charge up the watch with its magnetic connector. There's no word on the pricing just yet, but a company rep said it'll be "very affordable," and it'll launch in China in October, followed by global rollout before end of the year.
ZTE's latest smartwatch packs style and gesture control
ZTE isn't just counting on a high-end smartphone to convince you that it means business. The company has taken the wraps off of the Axon Watch, a smartwatch that's miles above last year's clunky BlueWatch in both design and features. Besides looking like a conventional watch that you might actually enjoy putting on your wrist, it's packing a wearable version of Tencent OS (nope, no Android Wear here) with both perks like gesture control as well as basics like phone calls, messaging and fitness tracking.
Yet another Chinese firm launches an Android rival
If Frank Herbert was around today, the tagline of Dune would probably be "those that control their own operating system, controls the universe." It's an idea that China's tech firms have taken to heart, crafting their own platforms in the hope of toppling Android as the go-to software in charge of everyone's hardware. Tencent is the latest to throw its hat into the ring with a new OS that's, unsurprisingly, able to be used on phones, games consoles, VR devices and smartwatches.
China's tech giants are getting into the autonomous car business
Google and Tesla are squaring off against each other for the future of self-driving cars, so it's no surprise to see China's tech giants follow suit. Both Tencent and Baidu have announced that they'll be getting into the autonomous vehicle game in the last 24 hours. Tencent is teaming up with iPhone assembler Foxconn, as well as a local luxury car outfit, to create "smart vehicles."
Call of Duty Online public beta launches in China
Call of Duty Online, the China-only freemium version of the mega franchise, is now in open beta for hundred of millions of Chinese. Announced several years ago, publisher Activision has taken a very disciplined approach in developing the game for the region. "We've worked closely with our partner at Tencent, and we've challenged one of our most trusted and talented development teams of Raven Software to create a true Call of Duty experience tailored for the Chinese market," said Activisition Publishing CEO Eric Hirshberg. "Throughout testing, the community feedback has been tremendous. We couldn't be more excited and we look forward to winning the hearts and minds of a new community in China." Not to mention: all that cash! Almost every major publisher has made a deal with Tencent to get a piece of China's emerging market. Thanks to China's regulations governing international investment, the company has turned into the go-to gatekeeper to the region. That hasn't stopped Tencent from making outside investments of its own, including a minority stake in Epic Games and ownership of League of Legends developer Riot. Oh yeah, Tencent is also a massive "passive investor" in Activision.
Warlock class welcomed to Blade & Soul with new trailer
The eighth class for Blade & Soul was formally revealed at Tencent Game's annual Carnival (TGC2014). Together with NCsoft, the studio announced that the Warlock is joining the lineup and revealed a trailer to give a hint of the class's abilities. Similar to a Summoner, the Warlock calls various companions to his side in battle and uses a variety of spells to inflict damage and erase buffs on enemies. An interesting Warlock ability manifests itself in PvP: They can steal the abilities of enemy players and use said abilities against them. The Warlock will be available on the Korean server this December and will arrive on the Chinese server at an undisclosed future date. Want a small taste of what's to come? Check out the action in the clip below.
HBO teams up with Tencent to sell its TV shows in China
China's strained relationship with the concept of intellectual property is one of the reasons that you can buy a local copy of a Range Rover Evoque for a third of the price. That's one of the reasons why western businesses are wary about selling their products in the nation, since it can often be time consuming and expensive. Still, it looks as if HBO is going to try and buck the trend after recruiting Tencent to distribute shows such as Game of Thrones, Rome and True Detective through the latter's Tencent Video streaming service.
Report: Ouya talking to Google, Tencent about acquisition
Ouya is looking to be acquired, and it's in talks with Google, Amazon and a few Chinese companies, including Riot Games owner Tencent, Re/code reports. Re/code's sources say there aren't any offers on the table yet, but talks are proceeding. Ouya sees acquisition, rather than another funding round, as the better option, the report says. China opened itself up to the wider world of gaming when early this year it lifted a 14-year ban on foreign console sales. Microsoft plans to launch the Xbox One in China on September 23, and both Sony and Nintendo have announced plans to launch hardware in the country.
A preview of the third closed beta for wuxia MMO Moonlight Blade
Would you say there's a distinct lack of wuxia MMORPGs in your life at the moment? Then you might be interested in learning more about Moonlight Blade, a wuxia game published by Tencent and currently in the midst of its third beta test in China. Steparu recently discussed the beta test, covering everything from missions and quests to character customization, with the caveat that the author doesn't speak a word of Chinese and has muddled through much of the game with the help of friends. Moonlight Blade features three different combat modes based on player preference, ranging from traditional point-and-click gameplay to fully active combat. While the game looks gorgeous, according to the beta review it's still very buggy and the combat lacks some satisfying impact. Check out the full piece if it seems like something you'd be interested in; there's no word on a Western release, but showing interest can't hurt.
NBA 2K Online reaches 19 million registered ballers in China
While Take-Two was busy counting its fat stacks of cash following its healthy fiscal 2014 financial report, it also noted milestones in its collaborative efforts overseas. Namely, CEO Strauss Zelnick revealed during the company's call with investors today that "usage and player engagement with NBA 2K Online continued to gain momentum, and it's now the number one PC online sports game in China with 19 million registered users." NBA 2K Online was announced in June 2009 as one of Take-Two's major pushes into the Asian market. Arriving in October 2012, the game is a free-to-play basketball simulation for PC that features every licensed NBA team. It is the result of a partnership between Take-Two and Tencent, a developer with experience in crafting free-to-play versions of popular properties suited for the Chinese market, including Monster Hunter Online for Capcom and FIFA Online 3 for EA. [Image: Tencent Games]
Capcom plans to sell 3.9 million more copies of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate
Alongside Capcom's financial report for the 2013 fiscal year yesterday, in which it revealed an increase in net income by 15.9 percent year-over-year, it also offered some projections for the upcoming financial year (ending March 31, 2015). Given the continued success of its Monster Hunter brand, Capcom projected sales of Monster Hunter 4 Ultimate to reach 3.9 million units in North America, Europe, Japan and other Asian countries. The game will reach the west in early 2015. Additionally, Capcom reported that its strategy for mobile includes the launch of Monster Hunter Freedom Unite on iOS this month. The PSP game went free for PlayStation Plus users in March. Capcom also plans to launch another mobile game in the series this year called Monster Hunter Smart. The company noted strategies for PC in Japan and other parts of Asia, namely by introducing the beta phase of Monster Hunter Online as well as Breath of Fire 6 this summer. The latter was announced in August 2013 for PC, iOS and Android, whereas the former is the result of an April 2013 partnership between Capcom and Tencent to bring the free-to-play MMO to PC players in China. Lastly, Capcom mentioned plans to "develop titles exclusively for online games," specifically mentioning Deep Down for PS4, a free-to-play game first announced in September. [Image: Capcom]
Blade & Soul surpasses 1.8 million concurrent users in China
Western Blade & Soul fans may be wondering when, or if, NCsoft is ever going to bring the martial arts fantasy MMO to their shores. Chinese fans, on the hand, are scarfing up the title as quickly as publisher Tencent can add additional servers. MMO Culture reports that the firm added another hardware group last week, bringing the total to a whopping 195 servers and helping to alleviate shard congestion. The site also notes that concurrent users have surpassed 1.8 million while active users sits somewhere around the 18 million mark.
Blade and Soul adds servers in China
Blade and Soul's closed beta appears to be going quite well in China; Tencent has just expanded the number of live servers from 19 to 33. Additionally, rumors indicate that the Chinese version of the game will be entering open beta sometime in early December. No new info is available for western gamers waiting for Blade and Soul. The last update on the official site is dated December 5th, 2012 and claims that details will be delivered "when the time is right." NCSoft and Team Bloodlust are working on the western version of the title.
China's Tencent will offer 10TB of free cloud storage to attract US users
Getting wind that users of Tencent's Chinese-language cloud service have 10TB of free storage made many drool, but soon there'll be no need for envy. Peter Zheng, one of the company's vice presidents, announced last weekend that the complimentary storage setup is bound for the US and will likely be available in early 2014, PandoDaily reports. If you're not familiar with the offer, folks who sign up for one of the firm's QQ accounts and download its mobile cloud app score 1TB of gratis space, which will balloon closer to 10TB as needed. Sure, the idea of handing terabytes of your data to a foreign firm in an era of privacy concerns doesn't inspire confidence, but the outfit has plans to earn your trust: Zheng says your bits will likely be stored in servers outside of China. Can't wait for the freebie to make its way stateside? Tencent hopes to keep you distracted with the US launch of its Instagram-like image app, Story Camera, within two to three weeks.
Final Chinese Blade and Soul beta begins October 29th
Blade and Soul is moving ever closer to release, at least in China. Tencent has confirmed that the final closed beta test for the game will go live on October 29th. The beta will roll out in two steps that should be familiar to weary MMO beta warriors. First, early access codes will be required to enter the beta. After an unspecified period of time, everyone else can join up. Accounts created during this last closed beta test will not be deleted; progress will remain when open beta launches a few weeks/months later. According to Tencent, all characters will be kept unless there is a "major" change to the game. If you're not in China but are hoping to join the closed beta test, you can earn a chance to win a code by visiting the official Chinese site and voting for your favorite character.
Tencent ups the ante, offers users 10TB of free cloud storage in promotion
If you thought that the free storage that's offered by Microsoft, Google and others were generous, then you've never been to China. Tencent, in an attempt to crawl past local rivals Baidu and Weibo, is offering customers a whopping 10 Terabytes of space on its Weiyun cloud storage service. All users need to do is sign up with the company, offer up their QQ account number, and download the Weiyun mobile app -- which bags 'em an instant 1TB, with the allowance gradually increasing to 10TB the more files they upload. The only downside for us, naturally, is that the promotion does make SkyDrive's 25GB seem a bit stingy by comparison.
Gamescom 2013: SMITE's latest god, new game mode, and Tencent partnership
MOBAs are great for the MMO gamer afflicted by that nasty distraction called life. They offer progression, PvP, and even some theorycrafting you can take to the water-cooler gatherings at work. In some cases, MOBAs even grant the player a variety of ways to play the game. SMITE is one of these gems. During our pre-Gamescom chat with Todd Harris, co-founder and COO of Hi-Rez Studios, we learned a few details about SMITE's coming additions of a new Match-of-the-Day game mode and the Chinese-themed god named Zhong Kui.
