China’s leading online game publisher Tencent Inc (騰訊) made its first overseas foray yesterday by announcing a tie-up with local peer Taiwan Index Corp (台灣易吉網), in which the local firm will market a Tencent game in the local market.
“A local distributor for the popular online game QQ Three Kingdoms (QQ三國) marks Tencent’s first overseas foray by bringing its online game business outside of its home turf,” Taiwan Index chief operating officer Ronald Ho (何嘉興) said.
He told reporters at the game launch that Taiwan Index has been distributing online games featuring Eastern cultural elements and that its cooperation with Tencent could herald more to come.
QQ Three Kingdoms debuted in China more than a year ago, and its number of online gamers has hit 500,000, Taiwan Index said.
Ho expects player numbers in Taiwan to hit 25,000 soon, especially since the game debut coincides with the upcoming summer holidays, when teenagers can take a breather from their textbooks.
A Tencent representative wasn’t present at yesterday’s event, as the company prefers to keep a low profile, Taiwan Index officials said.
Founded in November 1998, Tencent is one of the biggest players in the Chinese Internet business sector, having multiple products including online games, chatrooms, Internet shopping and a search engine.
The company is especially well-known for its QQ instant messaging platform. Its Web site said the number of registered QQ users hit 1.06 billion in Sept. 30 last year, with active users numbering 484.9 million.
Taiwan Index is a subsidiary of Gamania Digital Entertainment Co (遊戲橘子), which partly invested in the upcoming Mandarin martial art movie Reign of Assassins — starring Michelle Yeoh (楊紫瓊) and Korean star Jung Woo-sung — to acquire intellectual property rights to tailor-make a same-titled game.
Taiwan Index is poised to distribute this game in the Greater China region around October alongside the movie premiere, Ho said.
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