When it comes to PC gaming, most of the world thinks of Steam first. It’s the biggest store and community for PC games, so much so that it’s almost a platform onto itself.
But in China, where PC gaming is a growing market (analyst firm Newzoo pegged it at $13.8 billion in 2016), Steam is a runner-up. China belongs to Tencent, the biggest game company in the world. You might know it as the owners of Riot Games, the folks who make the fantastically successful League of Legends.
And don’t count on Steam overtaking Tencent. Motherboard, Vice Media’s tech site, breaks down why each will keep their existing strangleholds on their home turfs. But this shows that while mobile is a booming market for gaming, the PC platform is still growing worldwide thanks to the ease of distribution (you don’t have to deal with Apple or Sony for certification) and the variety of experiences — and experimentation — a mouse-and-keyboard provide for.
And it also shows that China — one of the biggest markets in the world — is opening up to Western design studios. It’s probably a good time to brush up on your Mandarin, or do what folks in mobile have learned: find a partner like Tencent that’s interested in publishing your game there.
P.S. Tired of modern first-person shooters? Strafe might be for you.
From GamesBeat
SuperData: Gaming-related videos will earn $4.6 billion this year
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Gambling website finds Evil Geniuses is the top-earning team in esports
Among all the professional franchises in esports, Evil Geniuses is No. 1. To date, its teams have won $15.4 million from 632 tournaments. The Oakland, California-based operation has its Dota 2 team to thank for this. The popular multiplayer online battle arena game accounts for nearly 90 percent of Evil Geniuses’s total earnings. The second highest-grossing team is […]
Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds update: Here’s what’s new and different
One of the biggest hits on Steam is getting its first major patch. Bluehole is updating Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds, the studio’s Battle Royale-like online multiplayer game that has servers of 100 people fighting to the death. The patch will address a number of issues that are negatively affecting the unfinished game, which is out now $30 on […]
AMD launches new Polaris-powered Radeon graphics cards for gamers on a budget
Advanced Micro Devices has unveiled its low-cost AMD Radeon RX 500 series graphics chips and the accompanying cards that house them. The news of the new chips leaked out last week, and AMD confirmed them today. The Radeon RX 500 series includes four second-generation chips based on the Polaris architecture, which first debuted in 2016. The […]
Beamdog ‘spells’ out its biggest hurdle to making Planescape: Torment — Enhanced Edition
Beamdog has been untangling old computer code for more than seven years now. It released three Enhanced Editions of classic role-playing games with Baldur’s Gate, its Shadows of Amn sequel, and Icewind Dale. You’d think the Edmonton, Canada-based studio would’ve figured out every conceivable hurdle to taking the old Infinity Engine code and making it work. […]
Tencent is rebranding its PC digital game store as WeGame (updated)
Tencent is making some changes to its PC game store. According to Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad, the Chinese game company is planning to rebrand its Tencent Games Platform digital store, calling it WeGame. The formal announcement will take place on April 20. The platform primarily serves China, but WeGames could be a more international endeavor. This news […]
Beyond GamesBeat
PlayerUnknown Battlegrounds Dev: “Please Bear With Us” On Memory Leak and Server Issues
In its first major update, developer Bluehole has outlined the major fixes planned for its successful battle royale title, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds. The game launched on Steam Early Access at the end of March, breaking more than 100,000 concurrent users on Steam this week. Everything isn’t completely rosy though, with players complaining about server issues, memory leaks, and a host of bugs. (via US Gamer)
Dear BioWare: Stop making open-world games
Dear BioWare: We need to have a talk. You’ve been doing a really good job of listening to people, as the latest Andromeda patch proves. But instead of minor complaints like “dear god, that face is hideous” or “this character is written poorly,” this one’s philosophical: BioWare, it’s time for you to stop with the open-world experiment. (via Polygon)
The Modders Who Decided to Overhaul the AI in ‘Civilization V’
One of the most popular mods for Civilization V, dubbed the Community Patch, goes far beyond anything I’ve profiled before. It doesn’t just add a weapon, faction, or tweak the colors on a t-shirt to fit someone’s preferences. Instead, the creators raised their ambitions higher, hoping to radically improve the AI driving the game. (via Waypoint)
The 16-Year-Old Modder Who Decided ‘Crusader Kings II’ Wasn’t Jewish Enough
Crusader Kings II is a sprawling, ambitious strategy game set in the Middle Ages, one known for its stories of intrigue, backstabbing, and other plots spinning out of its central premise: relationships. The choices you make regarding, like the decision to have children—or, if it seems to advance your interests, deciding to kill your own children—are what move the game forward. (via Waypoint)
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