According to Reuters, Tencent is apparently in the works on a mobile version of FromSoftware’s popular game Elden Ring, and get this—it’s going to be free-to-play! They got the scoop from three folks who know a thing or two about Tencent’s plans.
So, it seems like the Chinese tech bigwig has got a squad of “a few dozen folks” who’ve been grinding away on the game ever since Tencent Holdings snagged themselves a piece of FromSoftware back in August 2022. If this report checks out, Elden Ring would just be the newest addition to Tencent’s laundry list of big game titles they’ve licensed to make into free-to-play mobile versions. They’ve been at it for a while now!
Some of the big wins in this mobile game transformation journey have been PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty: Mobile, but Tencent and its crew are also tinkering away on mobile versions of Need for Speed and Assassin’s Creed. They’re really keeping busy!
Even with those big brand names, hitting it big with these mobile games is no sure thing. Reuters spilled the beans before, mentioning that these licensing deals could come with hefty royalty fees, around 15 to 20 percent of sales, on top of platform fees like Apple’s hefty 30 percent cut.
Tencent pulled the plug on a mobile version of Apex Legends last year, which they cooked up with EA. They also supposedly axed a secret mobile game based on the Nier series due to worries about how to make money off it, even after pouring two years into development. So, it wouldn’t be shocking if Tencent ran into similar hurdles trying to cram a big, mostly single-player game like Elden Ring into a free-to-play mold.
With talk of Elden Ring going mobile, Tencent’s feeling the heat from some tough competition in China. They’ve got miHoYo and NetEase breathing down their necks, makers of hits like Genshin Impact and Eggy Party.
At Tencent’s latest annual powwow in Shenzhen, their bigwig Pony Ma spilled the beans, saying, “We have found ourselves at a loss, as our competitors continue to produce new products, leaving us feeling having achieved nothing.”
To shake things up, Ma mentioned that Tencent’s doubling down on weaving its Hunyuan AI model into all corners of its operations to get things moving more smoothly, as per Reuters.