TiMi Studio Group explained

Former Name:TiMi Studios
Type:Subsidiary
Industry:Video games
Hq Location City:Shenzhen
Hq Location Country:China
Num Locations:7
Num Locations Year:2021
Areas Served:Worldwide
Key People:Colin Yao
(Vice President of Tencent & President of TiMi Studio Group)
Vincent Gao
(Head of Global Game Development)
Products:Notable Games
Parent:Tencent Games
Divisions:AudioDevelopment
Jade Studio
Tianmeiyiyou Studio
Wolong Studio
Montréal & Singapore

TiMi Studio Group, a subsidiary of Tencent Games, is a video game development studio group headquartered in Shenzhen, China and offices in Singapore, Montréal, Seattle, Los Angeles, Chengdu, and Shanghai. TiMi generated an estimated revenue of $10 billion USD in 2020. Reportedly, TiMi is the largest video game operator and developer in the world by revenue.[1] Founded in 2008 as Jade Studio, TiMi comprises several development divisions with different areas of expertise and develops games in different genres for PC, mobile, and Nintendo Switch, including Honor of Kings, Arena of Valor, , Speed Drifters, and Pokémon Unite.

History

2008–2013: Origins as Jade Studio

TiMi began in 2008 as Jade Studio in Shenzhen, China. The studio debuted into the Chinese PC gaming market with QQ Speed (known as GKART and Speed Drifters in Western markets), China's most successful racing game. As of July 2, 2019, Speed Drifters has 700 million registered users, with 200 million registered as mobile players.[2] Following Speed Drifters, the studio released its own massive multiplayer online RPG (MMORPG) titled The Legend of Dragon in 2010 and first-person shooter (FPS) Assault Fire in 2012. In 2013, the studio released their final PC game which is a third-person shooter (TPS) titled Age of Gunslingers before they made their debut into mobile gaming with the release of WeChat exclusive games such as We Match and We Run.

2014–2016: Formation of TiMi Studio Group and Chinese success

In 2014, Jade Studio merged with Wolong Studio from Chengdu and Tianmeiyiyou Studio from Shanghai to form TiMi Studio Group.[3] Following the merge, in 2015, the group's development division TiMi-L1 debuted into mobile gaming with the massive Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game, Honor of Kings. As of July 2019, Honor of Kings is the most profitable mobile game globally of the first half of 2019, earning more than $728 million.[4]

In 2016, the division introduced the King Pro League (KPL); an official competitive esport for Honor of Kings. The KPL marked the division’ and studio group' first entry into esports, providing a $12 million prize pool.[5]

2016–2020: Worldwide growth, Arena of Valor, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Pokémon UNITE

Following the success of Honor of Kings, in 2016, the group's development division TiMi-J6 released Arena of Valor. The MOBA game was launched for mobile and Nintendo Switch in over 50 countries across Asia, Europe, North America and South America, expanding the group's reach worldwide, with more than 13 million monthly active users reported in May 2019.[6] The game became a part of the esports demonstration event at the 2018 Asian Games and 2019 Southeast Asian Games.

On 19 March 2019, at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California, Activision announced that they were partnering with TiMi Studio Group to develop their upcoming title, .[7] The game was developed by the TiMi-J3 division and released worldwide on 1 October 2019. As of 4 October 2019, the game has surpassed 35 million downloads and over $2 million in revenue.[8] In December 2019, the game received an award for Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards.[9]

In July 2019, it was announced that the studio group and The Pokémon Company are developing a new Pokémon game, which was revealed on 24 June 2020, called Pokémon UNITE, a Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game for mobile and Nintendo Switch.[10] [11] [12] [13]

2020–present: Team Kaiju, Code: J, Records

In May 2020, the studio group announced ex-343 Industries and Ubisoft developer Scott Warner as Studio Head in North America.[14] Scott Warner will lead TiMi's Team Kaiju (stylized as TEAM KAIJU), which was revealed on 15 October 2021. The subsidiary is working on one unnamed first-person-shooter (FPS) game for the PC and console market.[15] [16]

On 27 June 2020, the studio group and SNK announced a new unnamed mobile game, Code: J, for the classic arcade franchise Metal Slug.[17]

In November 2020, the studio group announced that Honor of Kings set a record of 100 million average daily active users worldwide.[18]

in July 2021, the group established a new division located in Canada, Montréal. The division's classification is TiMi-F1 and the development focus is an AAA open-world game.[19] [20]

In May 2021, the studio group announced a strategic partnership with Xbox Game Studios.[21] [22]

In June 2022, TiMi L1 Studio, a development division of the group, announced a strategic partnership with Level Infinite on publishing Honor of Kings world-wide, where Level Infinite will take over the publishing, eSports, but TiMi the operations and community. The five versus five video game in the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre will adapt on areas where TiMi J6 Studio's Arena of Valor have a shared eSports with in Honor of Kings World Championship (KCC), under TiMi eSports, but did not reach the expected player base.[23] [24] [25]

In August 2022, Nicolas 'Sparth' Bouvier announced that he had joined Team Kaiju as the Senior Art Director. Previously Sparth had been with the Halo franchise for 14 years, serving as the Art Director for most of that tenure.

In December 2023, TiMi Studio Group shut down Team Kaiju, including discontinuing their unannounced game. The team members were moved to other development divisions, and some left the group.[26]

Honor of Kings was launched worldwide on June 20th, 2024, following pre-releases in Brazil and Turkey as well as countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Commonwealth of Independent States.[27] [28]

List of games

YearTitleGenre(s)Platform(s)Development division(s)
2007QQ Three KingdomsArcadeMicrosoft WindowsL1
2008QQ Speed (GKART / Speed Drifters)RacingJ1
2010The Legend of DragonMassively multiplayer online role-playingJ2
2011The King of Dazzling Fighters / King of Combat[29] FightingJ5
2012Assault Fire[30] First-person shooterJ3
2013Age of Gunslingers[31] Third-person shooterJ4
We Match[32] CasualAndroid, iOST1 & J4
Parkour Everyday[33]
2014We Fight[34] L1
We Drift[35] J1
Let's Catch Demons Together! / Let's Hunt Monsters[36]
Eliminator Alliance[37] T1
Fantasy Fighters[38] FightingJ5
2015Crossfire Legends[39] First-person shooterJ3
Honor of Kings[40] Multiplayer online battle arenaL1
2016Arena of Valor[41] [42] [43] Android, iOS, Nintendo SwitchJ6
2017King of Chaos[44] Role-playingAndroid, iOST1
QQ Speed: Mobile / Garena Speed Drifters[45] [46] RacingJ1
2018The Legend of Dragon: Mobile[47] Massively multiplayer online role-playingJ2
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds: Army Attack[48] Battle royaleJ3
[49] Fighting
Contra Returns[50] [51] Run and gunJ1
2019Battle Through The Heavens[52] Massively multiplayer online role-playingT1
Saint Seiya: Awakening[53] [54] Turn-based strategy role-playingL1
[55] [56] [57] ShooterJ3
2021Pokémon UniteMultiplayer online battle arena, real-time strategyAndroid, iOS, Nintendo SwitchJ6
2022Age of Empires: Return to Empire[58] real-time strategyAndroid, iOS
2023Yuan Meng StarBattle-royal, racing, partyAndroid, iOS
2024Age of Empires Mobilereal-time strategyAndroid, iOST1
Need for Speed MobileRacingAndroid, iOS
TBAMetal Slug Code: JRun and gunAndroid, iOS
TBAHonor of Kings: WorldAction-adventureTBAL2
TBAUntitled Monster Hunter gameTBDMobile devices and phones[59] J2 & G1
TBADelta Force: Hawk OpsShooterMicrosoft WindowsJ3

External links

Notes and References

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  2. Web site: "QQ飞车"用户超过7亿,11年来它的成绩到底如何? - 触乐. www.chuapp.com. 2019-09-18. November 30, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20201130021138/http://www.chuapp.com/article/286492.html. live.
  3. Web site: 腾讯互娱成立4个工作室群 任宇昕:快速高效 激励创新_游戏_腾讯网. https://web.archive.org/web/20160806133708/http://games.qq.com/a/20141009/020906.htm. dead. 2016-08-06. 2016-08-06. 2019-09-18.
  4. Web site: Honor of Kings Becomes Most Profitable Mobile Game Globally in the First Half of 2019. Li. Gabriel. 2019-07-05. Pandaily. en-US. 2019-09-19. September 24, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200924024537/https://pandaily.com/honor-of-kings-becomes-most-profitable-mobile-game-globally-in-the-first-half-of-2019/. live.
  5. Web site: King Pro League expands into APAC, finds news non-endemic sponsors. Fitch. Adam. 2018-09-17. Esports Insider. en-GB. 2019-09-19. August 9, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200809082436/https://esportsinsider.com/2018/09/king-pro-league-apac/. live.
  6. Web site: Arena of Valor Enjoys Skyrocketing Popularity Like its Chinese Counterpart Honour of Kings. Lee. David. 2019-07-14. Pandaily. en-US. 2019-09-18. September 21, 2020. https://web.archive.org/web/20200921040140/https://pandaily.com/arena-of-valor-enjoys-skyrocketing-popularity-like-its-chinese-counterpart-honour-of-kings/. live.
  7. Web site: Call of Duty Mobile announced for iOS, Android, made by China's Tencent. Machkovech. Sam. 2019-03-19. Ars Technica. en-us. 2019-09-18. https://web.archive.org/web/20190726195517/https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/03/call-of-duty-mobile-announced-for-ios-android-made-by-chinas-tencent/. 2019-07-26. live.
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