By Josh Ye
HONG KONG (Reuters) – China’s Tencent Holdings has been working to adapt acclaimed action role-playing console game “Elden Ring” into a mobile version, three people familiar with the matter said, as it searches for a new hit to refresh its ageing stock of games.
The world’s largest gaming company by revenue acquired the licensing rights for the game by FromSoftware in 2022 and set up a team of a few dozen people to work on a prototype, the same year it bought a 16% stake in the Japanese game maker, the people said. But progress has been slow, they added.
Tencent did not disclose its plans to develop a mobile version of the game at the time. “Elden Ring” was co-developed by “Game of Thrones” author George R. R. Martin and veteran game designer Hidetaka Miyazaki and is an action game where one battles mythical monsters in a fantasy world.
The game, released in 2022 for $60, sold about 20 million copies in its first year, making it the world’s second best-selling game for the year. Its fans include billionaire Elon Musk.
While “Elden Ring” was designed as a premium game with a set price tag, Tencent wants to make it a free-to-play game with in-app purchases, similar to the hit game “Genshin Impact” developed by its Chinese rival miHoYo, the people said.
But the design of “Elden Ring”, which focuses on a complete experience after a one-time purchase, is at odds with Tencent’s planned model.
Tencent and FromSoftware did not respond to requests for comment. The sources declined to be named as they were not permitted to speak to media.
Tencent has previously encountered issues with adapting big console games for smartphones. It axed a project based on the popular “Nier” franchise in December over monetization concerns.
Tencent has in the past year become more conservative in pursuing a game based on another company’s franchise as growth in the gaming market plateaus and hefty royalty fee can leave a game barely profitable.
Beijing’s opaque game approval system may also leave a finished game hanging for months, if not years, before release.
Still urgency for Tencent to find a new hit is growing, with its chairman saying that its gaming business was under threat.
While Tencent’s past hits such as “PUBG Mobile” continue to deliver strong revenue, more recent products have fallen short of expectations.
(Reporting by Josh Ye; Editing by Brenda Goh and Himani Sarkar)
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