New products are pouring out at the press conference. Tencent Games seems to be different this year.
Text by: Guofu
The 2025 Tencent Games Conference held tonight is truly quite different from previous years.
Compared with the past few years, the scale of the product matrix this time is much larger. On the one hand, Tencent has seen an explosion of new products this year. Not only are there more of them, but each also has its own potential. On the other hand, in addition to the self - developed and distribution lines, they also prominently showcased the product matrix of the company's current investments.
2025 Tencent Games Conference
Overall, more than 40 products were presented at this conference, including self - developed new products by the company such as Honor of Kings: World, Roco Kingdom: World, Under One Person, Enlisted: Dark Zone, as well as products related to Tencent's distribution and investment such as Dungeon & Fighter: Kazan, Girls' Frontline: Neural Cloud, Blade & Soul: Zero.
The following is an introduction to some of the products at the conference:
Among them, Tencent's self - developed product line seems to be an outburst after their strategic transformation.
Since 2023, Tencent has been emphasizing the concept of "evergreen games", which refers to products with an annual revenue of over 400 million RMB and a quarterly DAU of over 5 million on mobile or over 2 million on PC.
Ma Xiaoyi, the senior vice - president of Tencent, mentioned around last year's Tencent Games Conference that the Chinese game market has now matured. Compared with simply creating blockbusters, continuous growth based on top - tier high - DAU games can drive performance growth and propel Tencent forward.
In the past few years, there have actually been many product verification cases for this idea. For example, TFT: Teamfight Tactics didn't perform well at its initial launch, but with continuous iteration, it later exceeded 10 million DAU and now basically remains in the top ten of the best - selling list.
When Delta Force: Operators was first launched last year, although it had good results, there were still many skeptical voices in the community. Now, half a year later, it has not only exceeded 12 million DAU on both platforms but also gained general recognition from players.
Based on the strategic idea of "evergreen games", the new products at Tencent's conference this time do not emphasize multi - category coverage. Instead, they are more based on the existing IP accumulation, trying to launch new products with a longer lifecycle and more potential.
Honor of Kings: World
Honor of Kings: World was first revealed in 2021. It is a large - scale multi - player online adventure game launched by TiMi Studio based on the "Honor of Kings" IP. At that time, large - scale world games were booming, and presumably Tencent saw the potential of this category.
Currently, the game obtained its license in January this year. This morning, Honor of Kings: World also announced the official opening of pre - registration and is expected to be launched within 2025, landing on both PC and mobile platforms.
From the existing content, the game emphasizes multi - player online and large - scale world exploration. Players can obtain and control the well - known hero characters in the IP and embark on adventures alone or with friends in the worldview of the Honor of Kings universe.
Notably, compared with the existing large - scale world adventure games on the market, Honor of Kings: World may increase the proportion of the online experience. As for how they specifically design it, we may have to wait and see the performance in subsequent tests.
Honor of Kings: World
Roco Kingdom: World
Most players are not unfamiliar with this IP. In 2020, the web - based game Roco Kingdom celebrated its 10th anniversary, and the official announced the launch of the official sequel project Roco Kingdom: World, which is being developed by Magic Square Studio.
It's not easy for an old childhood IP to regain its glory. For example, the similar game IP Seer launched the mobile game Seer Project, which is still continuously exploring new directions. Roco Kingdom: World has been redesigned once and gradually found its current positioning during the development process.
From the existing exposed content, Roco Kingdom: World is mainly driven by large - scale world exploration and pet collection gameplay.
Roco Kingdom: World
Under One Person
Under One Person is a 3D fighting game adapted from the same - named IP, developed by Magic Square Studio. Since its first revelation at the end of 2022, it has attracted a lot of attention with its cool camera work and unique 3D presentation.
Subsequently, they also conducted the first test and opened an open - beta server to continuously adjust and iterate the game's numerical values.
In addition to the high - fidelity adaptation of the IP and the unique 3D performance, the game's gameplay is also quite distinctive. It adopts the rock - paper - scissors game theory, emphasizing that players respond to their opponents' moves through a series of basic operations, thus achieving cool maneuvers and highly strategic battles.
To put it simply, Under One Person still uses the underlying logic of fighting games, but it is easier to play and more exciting. It mainly tests players' on - the - spot combat reaction and dynamic strategic thinking.
Of course, based on the previous statements of producer Roy, Under One Person may also focus on the creative expression that combines fighting games with Chinese martial arts culture - but that's another story.
Under One Person
Valorant: Energy Initiative
I'm sure you've seen all the news about this game yesterday. One day before the conference, Valorant: Energy Initiative (i.e., the Valorant mobile game) was officially revealed for the first time, and the pre - registration activity across all channels was launched simultaneously.
Now, the achievements and popularity of Valorant are obvious to all. The overall influence of the IP is at its peak, and the future performance of the mobile version is quite worth looking forward to.
Actually, before this, Valorant: Energy Initiative was briefly tested twice under the name "Project C". From the existing exposed content, the performance of the mobile version of the game is not inferior to that of the PC version, and the overall restoration degree is also quite high.
In terms of the operations that players are more concerned about, the game has also tried its best to adapt to the mobile platform and arrange the screen layout. Some complex operations in the PC version can also be achieved after training. However, before actually playing, how the experience will be may still be something that players will continue to pay attention to. After all, the combination of "skills + shooting" in Valorant increases the depth of gameplay but also places higher requirements on players' operations.
Valorant: Energy Initiative
Enlisted: Dark Zone: Infinite
Enlisted: Dark Zone: Infinite is a search - fight - retreat FPS game for PC developed by Magic Square Studio. It was announced at the beginning of the month that it will be launched on April 29th.
Since 2019, Magic Square Studio has launched the "Enlisted: Dark Zone" IP. After the mobile game was launched in 2022, the data soared all the way. As of now, the game has a cumulative of 180 million registered players globally.
Regarding the PC version, producer Enzo emphasized that the game will pursue "extreme search - fight - retreat" and a "pure PC experience". Enlisted: Dark Zone: Infinite will inherit the gameplay details and design experience iterated from the previous IP. And since it is not designed for multiple platforms and doesn't need to compromise on mobile phone performance, it can pursue more extreme audio - visual performance.
Enlisted: Dark Zone: Infinite
Wilderness Origin
Wilderness Origin is an open - world survival and construction game developed by Aurora Studio and based on the UE4 engine. It obtained its license in February last year.
The overall worldview of the game emphasizes primitive tribes and AI mechanical beasts, and its design concept is a bit like Horizon Zero Dawn. What's special about Wilderness Origin is that it has good combat depth and introduces a mechanical beast system that can assist players in combat and construction.
Wilderness Origin
In terms of non - self - developed products, what's worth noting is that Tencent has additionally added an investment section this time and showcased a series of games invested by the company.
Most people have probably heard about Tencent's large - scale investment in global game companies in the past. For example, when the award list of the 2023 TGA was announced, netizens joked that "Tencent is the biggest winner" because behind both Larian Studios of the Game of the Year Baldur's Gate 3 and the development teams of Alan Wake 2 and Armored Core VI: Fires of Rubicon, there was Tencent's influence.
What's even more surprising is Tencent's investment timing. In 2008, Tencent invested in Riot Games when League of Legends hadn't even been born. In 2018, it invested in Larian Studios when Larian was going through a studio restructuring.
Introducing the invested products to the conference may be mainly related to the change in Tencent's strategic direction.
Ma Xiaoyi mentioned in an interview with the media last year that Tencent should let the brand of Tencent Games take a step back and let the studios and products take the lead. Direct examples of this are Linlangtianshang behind Delta Force: Operators and Under One Person, which can be "less Tencent - like".
Tencent's attitude when investing in studios is similar. Rather than just providing pure financial support, the purpose of Tencent's investment is more to "let them create the products they want to make".
Therefore, this investment section is also a statement from Tencent to global development teams.
Returning to the products themselves, there are also many worthy products among the non - self - developed games this time, covering multiple platforms and game categories.
Some Distributed Products
Path of Exile: Ascendancy
Path of Exile: Ascendancy is the Chinese version of Path of Exile 2, the sequel to the ARPG Path of Exile.
After Path of Exile 2 was released in Early Access overseas last year, it topped the Steam best - selling list for five consecutive weeks and became a phenomenon - level game at the end of 2024. Although there were some negative topics due to content updates later, thanks to the good feedback attitude of the production team, the situation was finally resolved without major problems.
However, Path of Exile 2 is currently region - locked, and players may have to find ways to overcome difficulties to experience it smoothly. Thanks to Tencent's agency, domestic players will be able to experience Path of Exile: Ascendancy earlier and more conveniently - it obtained the import license yesterday.
Path of Exile: Ascendancy
Dungeon & Fighter: Kazan & The Finals
Both Dungeon & Fighter: Kazan and The Finals are products of a subsidiary of Nexon. Tencent has reached a cooperation with them to be responsible for the domestic agency.
Among them, Dungeon & Fighter: Kazan is an ARPG created based on the DNF worldview, telling the story of "Berserker" Kazan in the game background. The game has currently been launched on the PS5, Xbox, and Steam platforms.