TiMi Studio Group (), a subsidiary of
Tencent Games
Tencent Games () is the video game publishing division of Tencent Interactive Entertainment, itself a division of Tencent Holdings. It has five internal studio groups, including TiMi Studio Group. Tencent Games was founded in 2003 to focus on on ...
, is a video game development studio group headquartered in
Shenzhen
Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...
, China and offices in
Singapore
Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, bor ...
,
Montréal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-p ...
,
Seattle
Seattle ( ) is a seaport city on the West Coast of the United States. It is the seat of King County, Washington. With a 2020 population of 737,015, it is the largest city in both the state of Washington and the Pacific Northwest regio ...
,
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...
,
Chengdu
Chengdu (, ; simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), alternatively romanized as Chengtu, is a sub-provincial city which serves as the capital of the Chinese pro ...
, and
Shanghai
Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flowin ...
. TiMi generated an estimated revenue of $10 billion USD in 2020. Reportedly, TiMi is the largest video game operator and developer in the world by revenue. Founded in 2008 as Jade Studio, TiMi comprises several development divisions with different areas of expertise and develops games in different genres for PC, mobile, and
Nintendo Switch, including ''
Honor of Kings
''Honor of Kings'' (, unofficially translated as "King of Glory," or alternatively transliterated as Wangzhe Rongyao) is a multiplayer online battle arena developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Tencent Games for the iOS and Android mo ...
'', ''
Arena of Valor
''Arena of Valor'' (), formerly ''Strike of Kings'', is an international adaptation of ''Honor of Kings'' (), a multiplayer online battle arena developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Level Infinite for Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch ...
'', ''
Call of Duty: Mobile'', ''
Speed Drifters'', and ''
Pokémon Unite''.
History
2008–2013: Origins as Jade Studio
TiMi began in 2008 as Jade Studio in
Shenzhen
Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...
, China. The studio debuted into the Chinese PC gaming market with ''QQ Speed'' (known as ''GKART'' and ''Speed Drifters'' in Western markets), China's most successful racing game. As of July 2, 2019, ''Speed Drifters'' has 700 million registered users, with 200 million registered as mobile players. Following Speed Drifters, the studio released its own massive multiplayer online
RPG (MMORPG) titled ''The Legend of Dragon'' in 2010 and first-person shooter (FPS) ''Assault Fire'' in 2012. In 2013, the studio released their final PC game which is a third-person shooter (TPS) titled ''Age of Gunslingers'' before they made their debut into mobile gaming with the release of
WeChat
WeChat () is a Chinese instant messaging, social media, and mobile payment app developed by Tencent. First released in 2011, it became the world's largest standalone mobile app in 2018, with over 1 billion monthly active users. WeChat has b ...
exclusive games such as ''We Match'' and ''We Run.''
2014–2016: Formation of TiMi Studio Group and Chinese success
In 2014, Jade Studio merged with Wolong Studio from Chengdu and Tianmeiyiyou Studio from Shanghai to form TiMi Studio Group. Following the merge, in 2015, the group's development division TiMi-L1 debuted into mobile gaming with the massive
Multiplayer Online Battle Arena
Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete against each other on a predefined battlefield. Each player controls a single character with a set of distinctive abilities that ...
(MOBA) game, ''
Honor of Kings
''Honor of Kings'' (, unofficially translated as "King of Glory," or alternatively transliterated as Wangzhe Rongyao) is a multiplayer online battle arena developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Tencent Games for the iOS and Android mo ...
''. As of July 2019, ''Honor of Kings'' is the most profitable mobile game globally of the first half of 2019, earning more than $728 million.
In 2016, the division introduced the King Pro League (KPL); an official competitive
esport
Esports, short for electronic sports, is a form of competition using video games. Esports often takes the form of organized, multiplayer video game competitions, particularly between professional players, individually or as teams. Although orga ...
for ''Honor of Kings''. The KPL marked the division’ and studio group' first entry into esports, providing a $12 million prize pool.
2016–2020: Worldwide growth, Arena of Valor, Call of Duty: Mobile, and Pokémon UNITE
Following the success of ''Honor of Kings'', in 2016, the group's development division TiMi-J6 released ''
Arena of Valor
''Arena of Valor'' (), formerly ''Strike of Kings'', is an international adaptation of ''Honor of Kings'' (), a multiplayer online battle arena developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Level Infinite for Android, iOS and Nintendo Switch ...
''. The MOBA game was launched for mobile and
Nintendo Switch in over 50 countries across Asia, Europe, North America and South America, expanding the group's reach worldwide, with more than 13 million monthly active users reported in May 2019. The game became a part of the esports demonstration event at the
2018 Asian Games
The 2018 Asian Games ( id, Pesta Olahraga Asia 2018 or ''Asian Games 2018''), officially known as the 18th Asian Games and also known as Jakarta-Palembang 2018 or Indonesia 2018, was a continental multi-sport event that was held from 18 Augus ...
and
2019 Southeast Asian Games.
On 19 March 2019, at the
Game Developers Conference
The Game Developers Conference (GDC) is an annual conference for video game developers. The event includes an expo, networking events, and awards shows like the Game Developers Choice Awards and Independent Games Festival, and a variety of tuto ...
(GDC) in San Francisco, California, Activision announced that they were partnering with TiMi Studio Group to develop their upcoming title, ''
Call of Duty: Mobile''. The game was developed by the TiMi-J3 division and released worldwide on 1 October 2019. As of 4 October 2019, the game has surpassed 35 million downloads and over $2 million in revenue. In December 2019, the game received an award for Best Mobile Game at
The Game Awards
The Game Awards is an annual awards ceremony honoring achievements in the video game industry. Established in 2014, the shows are produced and hosted by game journalist Geoff Keighley, who worked on its predecessor, the Spike Video Game Awards ...
.
In July 2019, it was announced that the studio group and
The Pokémon Company
The Pokémon Company (株式会社ポケモン, ''Kabushiki gaisha Pokemon'') is a Japanese company responsible for brand management, production, publishing, marketing, and licensing of the '' Pokémon'' franchise, which consists of video game ...
are developing a new ''
Pokémon'' game, which was revealed on 24 June 2020, called ''
Pokémon UNITE,'' a
Multiplayer online battle arena
Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete against each other on a predefined battlefield. Each player controls a single character with a set of distinctive abilities that ...
(MOBA) game for mobile and Nintendo Switch.
2020–present: Team Kaiju, Code: J, Records
In May 2020, the studio group announced ex-
343 Industries
343 Industries is an American video game developer located in Redmond, Washington, part of Xbox Game Studios. Headed by Pierre Hintze, the studio is responsible for the ''Halo (franchise), Halo'' series of military science fiction games, origin ...
and
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', ''Far Cry'', ...
developer Scott Warner as Studio Head in North America. Scott Warner will lead TiMi's ''Team Kaiju'' (stylized as ''TEAM KAIJU''), which was revealed on 15 October 2021. The subsidiary is working on one unnamed
first-person-shooter (FPS) game for the
PC and
console
Console may refer to:
Computing and video games
* System console, a physical device to operate a computer
** Virtual console, a user interface for multiple computer consoles on one device
** Command-line interface, a method of interacting with ...
market.
On 27 June 2020, the studio group and
SNK
is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 ...
announced a new unnamed mobile game, ''Code: J'', for the classic arcade franchise ''
Metal Slug
is a Japanese run and gun video game series originally created by Nazca Corporation before merging with SNK in 1996 after the completion of the first game in the series. Spin-off games include a third-person shooter to commemorate the 10th ...
''.
In November 2020, the studio group announced that ''Honor of Kings'' set a record of 100 million average daily active users worldwide.
in July 2021, the group established a new division located in
Canada, Montréal. The division's
classification is TiMi-F1 and the development focus is an
AAA
AAA, Triple A, or Triple-A is a three-letter initialism or abbreviation which may refer to:
Airports
* Anaa Airport in French Polynesia (IATA airport code AAA)
* Logan County Airport (Illinois) (FAA airport code AAA)
Arts, entertainment, and me ...
open-world game.
In May 2021, the studio group announced a strategic partnership with Xbox Game Studios.
In June 2022, TiMi L1 Studio, a development division of the group, announced a strategic partnership with
Level Infinite on publishing
Honor of Kings
''Honor of Kings'' (, unofficially translated as "King of Glory," or alternatively transliterated as Wangzhe Rongyao) is a multiplayer online battle arena developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by Tencent Games for the iOS and Android mo ...
world-wide, where Level Infinite will take over the publishing, eSports, but TiMi the operations and community. The five versus five video game in the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre will adapt on areas where TiMi J6 Studio's Arena of Valor have a shared eSports with in Honor of Kings World Championship (KCC), under TiMi eSports, but did not reach the expected player base.
In August 2022, Nicolas 'Sparth' Bouvier announced that he had joined Team Kaiju as the Senior Art Director. Previously Sparth had been with the Halo franchise for 14 years, serving as the Art Director for most of that tenure.
List of games
References
External links
*
Team Kaiju
{{Tencent
Tencent
Video game companies of China
Video game development companies
Video game publishers
Video game companies established in 2008
Chinese companies established in 2008
Companies based in Shenzhen