- “We recognise that the mobile gaming environment is evolving in the West with more players now viewing mobile as a competitive gaming platform”
- “We are investing $15 million in both grassroots tournaments and major global events”
Tencent’s mobile MOBA game Honor of Kings, developed by TiMi Studio, is finally going global. The launch date, June 20th, will bring the game to global markets and players worldwide.
The game, which was first released in 2015 in China, is a standout in the MOBA games genre and despite its lack of a global debut, Honor of Kings has already proved its mettle, amassing a staggering $15.6 billion in lifetime revenue on China’s App Store, a testament to its popularity and securing three million pre-registrations for its global launch. In fact, despite its purely local launch it stands as one of the most successful mobile games ever made.
“We knew there was a demand among players for a MOBA experience on mobile devices, but we never expected to achieve such sustained popularity.”
Dean Huang
Honor of Kings chief designer Dean Huang [top left in our pic] told PocketGamer.biz: “When we started development, we knew there was a demand among players for a MOBA experience on mobile devices, but we never expected to achieve such sustained popularity.”
Western market challenges
Previous attempts to introduce the game to the West have faced challenges. Arena of Valor – which uses the same engine – made adaptations to appeal to Western markets and was released in 2016. According to AppMagic data, Arena of Valor has generated $71 million to date, which is no small feat but pales in comparison to Honor of Kings. This despite being available to a much wider audience and having various partnership deals with crossovers with the likes of the DC Universe, One-Punch Man, and Contra.
Now, with Honor of Kings having its own global launch, both games will exist side by side.
While some MOBA titles or those with similar themes, such as Supercell’s Clash Royale, have seen success in the West, it’s a tough market to break.
However, the Honor of Kings team is confident that the West is now more open to MOBA and that a long soft launch phase has enabled them to make the necessary changes to appeal to a global audience.
“TiMi and Level Infinite collaborate to provide customised and refined live ops solutions for players worldwide.”
Henry Li
“We recognise that the mobile gaming environment is evolving in the West, with more players now viewing mobile as a competitive gaming platform,” says Huang. “We believe that our experience from the success of Honor of Kings’ launch in other regions, such as MENA and Brazil, will enable us to better serve our Western players.
“The decision to launch the game in select regions via a phased rollout has allowed us to listen and react to the feedback of a diverse group of players from different cultures with the overall goal of delivering a game that has global appeal.”
Beyond the global launch
Whilst the TiMi Studio Group are developing Honor of Kings, their publishing partner, Level Infinite, is responsible for “gathering player feedback from various regions globally and guiding the optimisation of Honor of Kings,” says head of localisation, Henry Li [bottom in our pic]. “TiMi and Level Infinite collaborate to provide customised and refined live ops solutions for players worldwide.”
With the global launch marking just the beginning of this new journey, live ops will play an important role in the game’s continued support.
In addition to ever-evolving content, Level Infinite has also launched a new esports partnership program that speaks to the game’s future plans for an expanded presence in the esports space – a market that has seen tremendous growth over recent years.
And Honor of Kings already has a large esports following. The 2024 Honor of Kings open EMEA finals recently ended with All Gamers Global winning the event and securing a spot at the Honor of Kings invitational season 2 on June 29th.
“We are investing $15 million in both grassroots tournaments and major global events.”
Feng
Speaking with PocketGamer.biz, Honor of Kings head of esports, Feng [top right in our pic], shared that while the Honor of Kings competitive scene in China has seen popularity, it must be nurtured for future growth with a “clear path from amateur to professional.”
Feng continues: “To that end, we are investing $15 million in both grassroots tournaments and major global events. For amateurs, we have initiated the open series as the gateway tournament, while at the professional end, the Honor of Kings invitational series is underway, which will include the Midseason tournament being part of this summer’s Esports World Cup.”
Whether Honor of Kings can make it big in the West remains to be seen, but it’s clear the team have a strategy going forward to ensure that the game is refined beyond previous efforts for global launch and all important player feedback is being taken on board, with its new broader audience in mind.
“We will design customised operational activities based on the cultures and preferences of different regions to cater to the varied tastes of players,” says Li, who goes on to tease a final update about the future of Honor of Kings: “We are also in discussions about some exciting global IP collaboration opportunities, with more information to be released in the future.”
Worldwide players can get their hands on Honor of Kings 5v5 battles on June 20th for iOS and Android devices.
