While not exactly known in the western market, Netease is still China’s 2nd biggest online gaming company and the official partner of Blizzard. With Tencent Games having its own chain of E-Sports events and carnivals over the past few years, Netease is now hopping onto the bandwagon as well.
The 3 titles Netease have, for now, are Dota 1, Warcraft 3 and an upcoming self-developed MOBA, Heroic 3 Kingdoms. Heroic 3 Kingdoms is crafted using Unreal Engine 3, with 2 special maps, including 10 Vs 10, 5 Vs 5 Vs 5 to mimic the battle between the 3 warring kingdoms and several PvE maps.
I have played the game during its alpha test phase, but I will post more about it once it goes into Closed Beta. Sky and Grubby, both veterans of the global E-Sports scene, will now serve as ambassadors of Netease’s E-Sports platform.
Netease will be proving full support, including 1,000 paid E-Sports players, events, tournaments and more.
Will all these be able to deal against Tencent Games’ army, with over 10 million gamers playing its 4 most popular competitive online games? Time will tell.
