Tencent ‘giving up on Arena of Valor’
Firm said to have written off hopes for Western adaptation of Chinese blockbuster
Tencent is said to be winding down support for mobile and Nintendo Switch MOBA Arena of Valor.
The free-to-play title is a Western adaptation of Tencent’s League of Legends-inspired mobile game Honour of Kings, a sensation in the Chinese market and the world’s top-grossing mobile title in April 2019.
Launched on mobiles in late 2017 and Switch in September 2018, Arena of Valor was reportedly viewed as a smash hit in the making that would help Tencent grow its business in the West.
However, two Reuters sources claim the company has now disbanded the game’s marketing team for Europe and US after the title failed to meet expectations.
“In those markets, we are really just letting it live or die on its own course,” one said.
The game reportedly has 100,000 daily active users in Europe and 150,000 in North America. In comparison, Honour of Kings is said to have had as many as 55 million daily active users in China.
Tencent-owned Riot Games was also reportedly aggravated by its parent company’s Arena of Valor strategy and its potential impact on League of Legends’ audience and sales.
That relationship is now said to back on track, with a mobile version of League of Legends having reportedly been in development for over a year.
