Tencent, as part of its partnership with Nintendo, is hoping to make console games with Nintendo characters in its bid to expand from China into the United States and Europe.
Chinese megacorp Tencent dominates the mobile market and had a stake in both Epic Games and Activision Blizzard, Tencent is looking to grow its audience outside of China, particularly in light of China’s recent decision to impose game curfews on people under 18 years of age. The company is also in a partnership with Nintendo, too.
Tencent and Nintendo were at ChinaJoy 2019, the largest gaming and digital entertainment expo in Asia, in August to unveil the strategy for releasing the Nintendo Switch into China. The partnership, first revealed in April, will see Tencent take charge in localizing Nintendo’s presence in China, which includes translating certain Nintendo Switch titles such as Super Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild into simplified Chinese, and setting up local servers for Nintendo Switch Online.
“What we want is to expand from China, and one target is console game players in the U.S. and Europe.We hope to create console games with Nintendo characters, and learn the essence of making console games from Nintendo engineers,” a Tencent official – who asked not to be identified – told the Wall Street Journal.
The long-term benefit of such a project will be the chance to learn from Nintendo on how to win over gamers in the U.S. and European markets, as Tencent failed to do so with Arena of Valor.