While the western audience tuned in to Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2019 over the weekend, the largest gaming market in the world was focused on Tencent UP 2019. The annual UP event is hosted by none other than Tencent Holdings, with China gamers eagerly waiting to find out what’s next. While there were several western titles such as Brawl Stars and Stardew Valley announced, we will look into the really new China-developer titles in this article. Of course, it remains to be seen if Tencent will launch them overseas. Read on!
• Codename LN (PC game)
Tianmei Studio is one of the internal teams at Tencent, and it has most recently worked on 1 of the PUBG mobile game (which failed) and also with Activision on a Call of Duty Mobile. Codename LN is the new PC title announced at Tencent UP 2019, which features a unique setting of ancient China and western steampunk blended together. A battle royale game, you can spot influences from these 2 vastly different cultures from the trailer, from classic Chinese rooftops found in older dynasties to more modern guns and various gadgets. There is no in-game timeline revealed so far for Codename LN. According to the local media, the movements look pretty similar to Apex Legends’. Once again, this is a PC battle royale!
• Codename SOC (Mobile game)
Lightspeed & Quantum Studios is another internal team at Tencent, and it is most famous for developing PUBG Mobile. The team has actually worked on over a dozen games since forming in 2008 by combining 2 studios. Codename SOC is a zombie survival mobile game powered by Unreal Engine 4 and has been in development for around 2 years. Boasting a seamless open world, details are few, so do make your own guesses from the trailer below!
• Ace Force (Mobile game)
This anime-style team shooter had a few test phases last year, but was only officially announced at Tencent UP 2019. Similar to Overwatch, Ace Force has many characters each with his or her unique abilities, along with several game modes and maps. It even has the feature to switch characters during the play phase! Ace Force is pretty straight forward in terms of how it plays and the expected features, and beta begins in China next month.
• The Outcast Mobile (Mobile game)
A few years back, Tencent started its own comics platform and it has since produced many new IPs from the Chinese community. The Outcast (一人之下), also literally translated to “Under One Person“, is one of several new IPs which has been chosen to get a mobile game adaptation. There is also an anime series aired known as “Hitori no Shita: The Outcast”, so you can head to your nearest free stream sites to check it out. Season 1 aired in 2016, followed by Season 2 in 2018. For The Outcast Mobile, there are currently 4 different clans each with 2 unique characters dealing with the supernatural using their powers. There are tons of Chinese mystic elements in the IP which got me interested. Finding the anime now!
