Comprehensive product line-up demonstrates commitment to company values
Press Release: Tencent Games is focused on strengthening its underlying technologies and enhancing its teams’ expertise, the company said at SPARK 2023.
A focus on the future underpinned Tencent Games’ unveiling of upcoming projects aimed at the China market at its annual SPARK conference.
During the online conference, Tencent Senior Vice President Steven Ma discussed the emergence of ChatGPT and the potential the technology represents. He likened it to the ever-growing and symbiotic relationship between game development and the latest technology that has made it possible for innovative leaps.
“Driven by the growing and evolving needs of users, games have always embraced and applied the most cutting-edge scientific and technological advancements in a timely manner. The flipside is also true: Games represent a powerful driving force for AI and technological development,” said Ma.
“We firmly believe that games are like a digital oasis, where leading technologies converge, not only making the industry more vibrant, but also making the world a better place.”
Elevating the Gaming Experience
Tencent Games used the SPARK event to provide updates on 15 previously announced titles, including Honor of Kings, Arena Breakout, Moonlight Blade, SYNCED, Alchemy Stars, and more, while also unveiling 20 new projects, including Honor of Fight and Ash Echoes, in the pipeline. Those additions to the games line-up further cement the company’s position as a leading light in the country’s games sector.
The commitment to ensuring that the games being created are technologically advanced, visually stunning, of top quality and representative of the values of Tencent Games was a centerpiece of this year’s event.
Honor of Fight, developed by TiMi Studio Group, is a platform fighting mobile game under the Honor of Kings IP universe. The narrative sees heroes from different time and space entering a dark world formed by their own consciousness, where players will catch a glimpse of the other side of the Honor of Kings heroes through a brand-new battle experience.
SYNCED is a sci-fi shooter developed by NExT Studios. Set in a dystopian future, players assume the role of a Runner who battles dangerous entities known as Nanos within the confines of the Meridian, a sealed exclusion zone. The game features both PvE and PvP matches, and players can utilize their skills to defeat the Nanos before taming and weaponizing them against enemy forces. With an emphasis on enhancing squad strength and weaponry upgrades, players must fight for their fortune as they navigate through an unforgiving battlefield.
Alchemy Stars, developed by Tourdog Studio, is a strategy RPG mobile game with exquisite aesthetic design and unique line-connecting gameplay. Since its launch overseas in June 2021, Alchemy Stars has quickly become one of the hottest anime-style games of the year. It boasts gorgeous art created by over 150 artists, in addition to innovative and engaging gameplay. The game has topped the download charts in App Stores and Google Play across multipe markets. It has also won two major awards at the 2021 Google Play Awards, including “Best Game” and “Most Innovative Game”. Alchemy Stars will be launched in Mainland China on June 13, and a new PV was revealed at the conference. The PV provides a glimpse of the six major factions’ varied worldviews and introduces new Chinese-style content that incorporates cultural elements.
Ash Echoes is an anime-style real-time tactics game with character-collecting play focusing on tactical planning rather than operating. Ash Echoes constructs a youthful and brand-new world outlook and endows the well-known characters in Gujian world with new personas and identities, which will further expand the influence of Gujian Series, and enhance the brand value. In the game, players can think about tactical strategies, explore and clear levels, and collect characters in an immersive experience.
Breaking Barriers & Building Bridges With Tech
The SPARK 2023 conference also allowed Tencent Games to highlight the other avenues where the company is exploring game-related technology for other related applications.
MTGPA Haptics
Tencent Games CROS, Tencent Institute of Games, and Tencent Intellectual Property Department have collaborated with Peacekeeper Elite（Game for Peace） to create the industry’s first standardised game vibration tactile feedback system. The joint team led the development of the first tactile feedback industry standard and promoted it to become the first IEEE international standard.
Room 301 NO.6
Tencent SSV Silver Hair Technology Lab and Tencent Games’ Social Value Exploration Center jointly launched Room 301 NO.6, a first-person narrative gaming experience that allows users to experience, feel, and understand the lived experience of patients with Alzheimer’s. The product received incubation support from the Tencent Institute of Games and also won the Social Value Award at the 2022 GWB Independent Game Awards.
Tencent Coding Visual Simulation Lab
Tencent Coding Virtual Simulation utilizes game technology to transform high-quality physical hardware robots into software through virtual simulation technology, greatly reducing the cost of robot programming education. This makes it possible for young children to learn robot programming through virtual simulation and provides more imaginative space for hardware programming, thus promoting the universalization of information technology and artificial intelligence education.
Pavlov: Brain’It On
Co-developed by Tencent Games’ Social Value Exploration Center, NExT Studios and Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute (TCCI), Pavlov: Brain’It On from Tencent Games explores the methodology behind developing a game that applies the result of clinical research to become a real-life solution. With dozens of different mini-games, the experience will help players exercise various cognitive capacities, such as attention, thinking speed, memory, inductive reasoning, and spatial imagination.
