Tencent offers a wide range of PC-based and mobile games, which are either developed in-house or in partnership with other developers. In the December quarter, online games revenues grew by 16 percent annually to 18.47 billion yuan thanks to Tencent’s player-vs-player and role-playing smartphone games, including a key title ‘Honors of Kings.’
Tencent’s mobile game portfolio — as of March — had 110 launched titles, with several more in the pipeline, according to a recent note from Jefferies. It said in February, six Tencent-developed titles ranked among the top 10 mobile games in China, sorted by monthly active devices.
John Choi, head of Hong Kong and China Internet research at Daiwa Capital Markets, told CNBC he is positive on the company’s mobile gaming business because of the robust performance of the ‘Honors of Kings’ and a strong pipeline for 2017.
In a separate note to clients, Choi said he expected Tencent’s mobile game revenue to grow 42 percent annually in 2017, up from a previous estimate of 30 percent.
Guo, however, told CNBC that there could be several downsides affecting Tencent’s gaming business, including a quicker-than-expected slowdown in PC games, delays in new mobile game launch and regulatory policy risks such as the government putting tighter restrictions on online games played by children and teens.
