Tencent Holdings, Riot Games’ parent company, has seen a steady decline this year to its PC gaming revenue, according to a report by gaming business news site gamesindustry.biz.
The bleeding profits are apparently due to the Chinese government putting a freeze on issuing game licenses, and, according to the report, it’s showing no sign of being over anytime soon. Tencent didn’t address the license freeze in its financial report for the quarter, however, and even claimed to have 15 games coming down the pipeline after releasing 10 new ones just this past quarter.
“While our reported revenues declined quarter-on-quarter, our cash sales (before deferral) increased, benefiting from favorable seasonality and content updates for CrossFire, Dungeon & Fighter, and our sports titles,” Tencent said in its financial report.
This decline is worrying, especially after Tencent’s market value was lowered $180 billion USD this year, which also led to the company’s first significant restructuring in six years. Tencent attributes the lower PC gaming numbers to its users shifting to mobile gaming. The company’s smartphone revenue grew 11 percent sequentially to reach a total of $2.8 billion for the period.
Honor of Kings, the company’s most successful game, is mainly to thank for the continued growth in the mobile sector. Tencent’s PC gaming portfolio was still down four percent sequentially, and 15 percent year-on-year, which somewhat overshadows the mobile success.
Published: Nov 15, 2018 04:05 pm