Tencent has brought on two industry vets for Tencent Games and TiMi Studios.
Tencent has confirmed they’ve hired big names in the industry to beef up their gaming presence. The two latest hires the Chinese multimedia giant has brought on are Ken-Ichiro Imaizumi and Scott Warner. The former of which was a founding member of Kojima Productions, which is behind one of the most divisive games out there, Death Stranding. Warner, on the other hand, was the lead designer for Microsoft’s Halo 4.
The company confirmed the recently brought on staffers to the South China Morning Post on Tuesday. In the article, it details where they will be designated. Imaizumi was brought on as Tencent Games’ production director. Warner will be taking up the task as TiMi Studios’ head in its LA office. TiMi, in case your mind draws a blank, is in charge of the widely-downloaded Call of Duty Mobile.
The new hires were brought on amid some level of harshness in the gaming market within China. Gaming is constantly on a thin-thread. Not too long ago, Nintendo saw this first-hand as Animal Crossing: New Horizons remains off the Chinese market even with the support of Tencent.
It’s clear the Chinese-operated tech giant wants to bring their games to the west to broaden its reach as it already has a ton. Alongside the Switch deal with Nintendo, they also own 40 percent of Epic Games and the parent of League of Legends developer, Riot Games.
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Even with all that reach, though, they still have a ways to go before they can accomplish their goal. In late 2019, Tencent heavily altered their marketing, bringing in an English slogan in hopes of drawing outside influence. All in all, they hope to someday soon have half of its revenue come from outside of China. It isn’t impossible, it’s only been since November last year that this goal was public.
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