Tencent: The pad for your cloud service could be revolutionary

Tencent

That Tencent is trying to expand as much as possible within the gaming industry is a fact. Over the years, the Chinese company has gradually gained ground even outside its eastern borders, becoming a real giant in the global sector. What appears to be the company's next big step will be its own cloud gaming service of which little is known, except that it could have a very particular and revolutionary pad.

To reveal what the shapes could be who will have the controller of the Tencent cloud gaming service was the well-known videogame insider Daniel Ahmad on his Twitter profile. According to the concept that appeared on the net in these hours, the Chinese company could add a modular pad to its gaming service that can be shaped and modified according to the experience that the individual player intends to face.

Dall 'image posted by Ahmad, we can see how the base of the pad remains practically always unchanged, but the different removable clips change. Mainly we see two different versions in the image, one offering a very traditional key layout suitable for console games, and a second version with many more keys suitable for playing a whole range of mobile experiences.

Tencent's cloud gaming controller comes with interchangeable parts that are tailored towards different games. One is for traditional console games, the other is for mobile games.

This is because there are 700m + mobile gamers in China. Cloud enables these to be played on TV etc. pic.twitter.com/QVy720CtsW

- Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) May 17, 2021

As Ahmand himself points out, fans in China are assiduous players of mobile experiences, and for this reason Tencent will always aim a lot also at this huge slice of gamers. With this in mind, we can expect a cloud gaming service that is very open to both the console / PC gaming market and the mobile gaming market.

If you already own a new generation console and you need a second pad, you can easily buy it from Amazon at the following address: DualSense for PS5 and controller for Xbox Series X | S.

Tencent launches 60 new video games, partners with Microsoft as rivalry with ByteDance heats up

Tencent Holdings operates the world’s largest video games business by revenue. Photo: Reuters

Internet giant Tencent Holdings unveiled more than 60 new titles at its annual video gaming conference on Sunday, days after subsidiary TiMi Studios and Microsoft Corp's Xbox Game Studios formed a strategic partnership, as competition intensifies with TikTok owner ByteDance.

Tencent, which operates the world's largest video games business by revenue and China's biggest social media platform WeChat, featured big-budget action games like SYNCED: Off-Planet as well as the Roblox online gaming platform at the conference. This year's event featured about 20 more gaming titles than the conference last year, according to Tencent.

'Video games are becoming a 'super digital scenario' with endless possibilities,' said Steven Ma, Tencent's senior vice-president and gaming chief, at this year's conference. He indicated that video games are increasingly becoming more like social media platforms, where users can socialise and businesses can advertise in a 3D space.

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'With the rapid growth of technologies, games are playing a different role in many areas ... and it's unleashing unimaginable power,' Ma said.

The Roblox gaming platform has become enormously popular worldwide as a digital sandbox in which gamers can create their own characters, buildings and even custom game modes. Photo: Shutterstock

© Provided by South China Morning Post The Roblox gaming platform has become enormously popular worldwide as a digital sandbox in which gamers can create their own characters, buildings and even custom game modes. Photo: Shutterstock

He cited as an example Roblox, which partnered with Tencent to secure two licences from the Chinese government to launch its massively popular sandbox gaming platform on both smartphones and personal computers.

'Play can be seen as a form of productivity,' Ma said. 'Users around the world have created more than 18 million games on Roblox. This number is already three times the total number of films in history.'

This year's new content launch by Tencent, whose video gaming-related revenue topped 156 billion yuan (US$24.2 billion) last year, comes three days after flagship gaming studio TiMi and Microsoft's Xbox Games formed a strategic partnership to co-develop new titles. Further details of this deal is expected to be announced later this year.

These initiatives by Shenzhen-based Tencent, which has a nearly 50 per cent share of China's desktop and mobile gaming markets according to industry research firm Niko Partners, also reflect efforts to stave off competition from tech unicorn ByteDance, operator of popular short video-sharing apps TikTok and Douyin, which has stepped up its gaming expansion.

ByteDance ploughs US$15 million into Roblox rival, challenging Tencent

'It is quite obvious that the market is now more interested in learning what ByteDance may come up with next, compared to Tencent,' said Zheng Jintiao, co-founder of online media outlet GamerBoom.

'If you look at the titles Tencent is going to publish and games Tencent has invested in, it has been forced to take quite a few subpar games,' Zheng said. 'Although it may amount to barely any additional cost for Tencent, the success rate for these new titles will obviously be weaker than that of previous line-ups.'

Video gaming has become a top priority for ByteDance. It has proven to be an effective way to monetise users from social media apps - a strategy used by Tencent - and develop a new revenue stream as a hedge against hit app TikTok someday falling out of fashion. ByteDance's gaming business has grown to more than 3,000 employees over the span of three years.

Tencent and ByteDance have also been lavishing smaller gaming studios with huge amounts of cash to turn them into subsidiaries or allies. A recent bidding war between the two companies saw the valuation of Chinese game developer Moonton Holdings septuple to US$4 billion, from US$551 four months prior. It was acquired by ByteDance in March.

Tencent ex-employee to pay US$167,000 for breaking non-compete pact

Tencent's latest line-up of new video games is mostly for mobile devices. More than 20 titles are mobile games adapted from beloved anime properties, such as One Piece and Dynasty Warriors, and other gaming franchises. There are also three romance titles targeted at female gamers as well as four so-called serious games for education.

'The latest Tencent conference showed a lot of games, covering different genres and IP,' said Liao Xuhua, gaming analyst at Beijing-based Analysys. 'It is a testament to Tencent's dominance in the market, while showcasing many (of the company's) cultural values, collaborations with gamers as well as technical strides and innovations.'

Still, the new games are not expected to leave a sort of era-defining mark like Tencent's widely popular Honour of Kings . 'The games won't have bad results in the near term, but it will be hard for any of them to become major hits,' Liao said.

'The two shortcomings here are the lack of a product for the global market and a title that is cross-platform or on console,' he said. 'This goes to show that Tencent Games' innovation capability still doesn't match its status in the market.'

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Tencent: The pad for your cloud service could be revolutionary

Tencent

Tencent launches 60 new video games, partners with Microsoft as rivalry with ByteDance heats up