TikTok may sell its game assets to Tencent

Next step after closure of Marvel Snap publisher

Marco Wutz | Jan 9, 2024

TikTok may sell its game assets to Tencent /

TikTok is looking for someone to acquire ByteDance and its other gaming assets, according to a report by Reuters. Back in November 2023, ByteDance already announced plans to close Marvel Snap publisher Nuverse, cancel unreleased projects, and divest from ongoing titles in TikTok’s effort to wind down its core gaming business. Aside from Marvel Snap, Nuverse has found relatively little success after being founded as the core gaming label for ByteDance in 2019.

“We regularly review our businesses and make adjustments to center on long-term strategic growth areas. Following a recent review, we've made the difficult decision to restructure our gaming business,” a spokesperson for ByteDance said last year.

Marvel Snap is among the properties up for grabs as TikTok gives up its core gaming efforts. — Marvel Snap is among the properties up for grabs as TikTok gives up its core gaming efforts / Marvel, Nuverse

Talks with several parties are underway, chief among them being Chinese gaming giant Tencent, but there has not been any form of deal yet. Tencent recently lost millions of dollars in value after Chinese authorities proposed new gaming restrictions, though the government has loosened its stance on these in the meantime, firing the responsible official.

ByteDance and Tencent have traditionally not been on good terms due to competing with each other on the cutthroat Chinese market, but it looks like Tencent may be happy to hold the door for TikTok’s games division on the way out.

Another big gaming asset under ByteDance on the lookout for a buyer is the developer of Mobile Legends: Bang Bang, Moonton, which it acquired in 2021 for around $4 billion USD.

TikTok retreating from core gaming and no longer considering it a “long-term strategic growth area” has, naturally, made some waves late last year after an enormously successful year for games and an equally terrible one for those who make them.

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Published Jan 9, 2024

MARCO WUTZ

Marco Wutz is a writer from Parkstetten, Germany. He has a degree in Ancient History and a particular love for real-time and turn-based strategy games like StarCraft, Age of Empires, Total War, Age of Wonders, Crusader Kings, and Civilization as well as a soft spot for Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail. He began covering StarCraft 2 as a writer in 2011 for the largest German community around the game and hosted a live tournament on a stage at gamescom 2014 before he went on to work for Bonjwa, one of the country's biggest Twitch channels. He branched out to write in English in 2015 by joining tl.net, the global center of the StarCraft scene run by Team Liquid, which was nominated as the Best Coverage Website of the Year at the Esports Industry Awards in 2017. He worked as a translator on The Crusader Stands Watch, a biography in memory of Dennis "INTERNETHULK" Hawelka, and provided live coverage of many StarCraft 2 events on the social channels of tl.net as well as DreamHack, the world's largest gaming festival. From there, he transitioned into writing about the games industry in general after his graduation, joining GLHF, a content agency specializing in video games coverage for media partners across the globe, in 2021. He has also written for NGL.ONE, kicker, ComputerBild, USA Today's ForTheWin, The Sun, Men's Journal, and Parade. Email: marco.wutz@glhf.gg