Update Riot Games owner Tencent has announced plans to expand its Tencent Games Platform outside of China as a global game distribution service called WeGame.
The Chinese firm Tencent has announced plans to relaunch its Tencent Games Platform as a global game distribution service called WeGame.
Tencent has already made its presence globally known through investments in developers like Riot Games, Supercell, Activision Blizzard, and Epic Games, but this latest move would seemingly better position it on the global stage.
According to Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, the platform currently boasts 200 million users in China alone as TGP.
The rebranding transforms that platform, which Ahmad notes already supports VR and AR games as well as tools for communication between developers and players, to the soon to be globally available service, WeGame.
According to Ahmad’s translation, early plans for the global push would include the release of 100 games, mostly from Western developers, on the platform this year. Already, Tencent has released some Western-developed games in China through TGP with some success, including Stardew Valley, Cities Skylines, and Don’t Starve. Don’t Starve in particular, Ahmad told PCGamesN, sold one million copies during its first month on the platform alone.
More details on WeGame are expected to drop during Tencent’s UP conference on April 20.
Update: An earlier version of this story suggested that WeGame would be pushed globally as a Steam competitor. Ahmad has since clarified to Gamasutra that while the rebranded platform will open to global signups, Tencent appears intent on keeping WeGame a "China native" platform "for Chinese readers only" that competes directly with Steam in China.
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