Chinese major Tencent has signed a contract with The Pokémon Company. The companies will work together to create and bring to market new Pokemon games.
According to Bloomberg, the roles will be distributed as follows:
- The games will be developed by TiMi Studios (Tencent studio, whose portfolio includes Call of Duty Mobile);
- The Pokémon Company will assume the traditional role of licensor.
This is a successful business solution for both companies.
Tencent gets access to an IP popular outside of China. This will strengthen its position in the Western market. The latter is very relevant, given China’s ambiguous policy regarding video games in the home market.
If in the past Tencent was primarily focused on China, today we are looking at the gaming sector from a more global perspective.
Director of TiMi Studios
As for The Pokémon Company, the deal will most likely allow it to launch Pokémon GO on the Chinese market. In addition, the Japanese company gets a strong local ally who will be able to provide all its new products with good local marketing coverage.
However, the first official Pokemon game in China will not be released by Tencent. In May, The Pokémon Company announced a collaboration with another major local publisher, NetEase. The latter will release a localized version of the mobile Pokémon Quest in China.
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