ByteDance have confirmed that they are currently in talks with companies incuding Chinese gaming giants Tencent over the possible sale of their ongoing games concerns.
The TikTok-owning social media giant has been steadily backing out of its gaming interests for the past few months with moves to sell Moonton and a sharp about turn on their plans for Nuverse (publishers of Marvel Snap) in November.
The company effectively ceased production on new games and set plans in place to sell off anime-style role-playing game Crystal of Atlan and sci-fi survival game Earth: Revival to third parties. Now it seems that after speculation, ByteDance’s big plans to make a great escape may be coming true.
Change of plan
It’s estimated that so far the company has spent around 30 billion yuan on video game acquisitions and investments involving more than 20 studios between 2019 and 2022, with frustrations first arising around the inability to grow Moonton despite doubling the studio’s headcount.
It seems that having invested in games to help weather any storm that international bans on their Chinese-homed TikTok breadwinner may face, the company are feeling less panicked about potential TikTok bans and are instead more concerned about how Chinese regulations could impact their new gaming offshoots.
While their Nuverse publishing enterprise has – on the surface – been a huge success, with Marvel Snap winning our Mobile Game of the Year prize in 2023, it appears that ByteDance have grown disatified with the level of investment in game production required to keep the wheels turning, new products refreshing and the money rolling in. After spending $14 million thus far on developement and future plans without a major launch it appears that ByteDance are getting cold feet about the whole market.
This versus a social media leviathan such as TikTok where user generated content and promotion effectively feeds itself, producing ever greater profits.
All eyes on ByteDance
News of the possible sell-off came from a ByteDance representative on Tuesday came after local media outlet LatePost reported that Nuverse was in negotiations with Tencent regarding a sale. And while talks with Tencent are confirmed the firm has indicated that discussions are on-going elsewhere too, with the likes of Nuverse potentially going to the highest bidder.
At the time of writing it’s not known how far (and how far away from gaming) ByteDance are willing to go and which interested parties will have deep enough pockets to step in and take on the challenge.
