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Tencent is bringing not one but TWO Playerunknown's Battlegrounds mobile games to China

Tencent is bringing not one but TWO Playerunknown's Battlegrounds mobile games to China

Chinese tech and entertainment giant Tencent has nailed the exclusive publishing right for PC blockbuster Playerunknown's Battlegrounds in the region.

Earlier this week, the news that the battle royale smash hit would be launching in the country on mobile devices, but now Tencent has revealed there are smartphone titles being released.

One is being made by Lightspeed and Quantum Studios, and will be a more or less straight port of the PC game, while Timi's version places a focus on naval combat, which is certainly new territory for the battle royale smash hit.

How these will play on mobile is uncertain; personally I feel that the game is best-suited for PC or console; battle royale games can definitely work on mobile but they should be built specifically for that platform.

The game is going to be a smash hit anyways; in the region of 35 per cent of PUBG's playerbase is from China - and a lot of them aren't happy with ads appearing in the game.

There's also talk of Tencent still acquiring Korean games firm Bluehole due to the potential windfall for shareholders, but we'll have to wait and see on that one. 

Also, just look at how the game is being marketed in the region. Say what you will about mobile ports of PC titles, but this is how you market something.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.