TiMi Studio Group (), a subsidiary of Tencent Games, 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 provi ...

, 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 region o ...

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world ...

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 provin ...

, and

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Chinese, Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four Direct-administered municipalities of China, direct-administered municipalities of the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the ...

. 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 The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a tablet that can either be docked for use as a home console or used as a portable device, making it a ...

, 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 ''Pokémon Unite'' (stylized as ''Pokémon UNITE'') is a free-to-play, multiplayer online battle arena video game developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by The Pokémon Company for Android and iOS and by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. ...

''.

History

2008–2013: Origins as Jade Studio

TiMi began in 2008 as Jade Studio in

, 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, ''

''. 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 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 ''

''. The MOBA game was launched for mobile and

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 The 2019 Southeast Asian Games, officially known as the 30th Southeast Asian Games, or the 30th SEA Games, and commonly known as Philippines 2019, was the 30th edition of the Southeast Asian Games, a biennial regional multi-sport event which ...

. 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 ga ...

are developing a new ''

Pokémon (an abbreviation for in Japan) is a Japanese media franchise managed by The Pokémon Company, founded by Nintendo, Game Freak, and Creatures, the owners of the trademark and copyright of the franchise. In terms of what each of thos ...

'' game, which was revealed on 24 June 2020, called ''

Pokémon UNITE ''Pokémon Unite'' (stylized as ''Pokémon UNITE'') is a free-to-play, multiplayer online battle arena video game developed by TiMi Studio Group and published by The Pokémon Company for Android and iOS and by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. ...

,'' 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 announced a new unnamed mobile game, ''Code: J'', for the classic arcade franchise '' Metal Slug''. 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 Classification is a process related to categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated and understood. Classification is the grouping of related facts into classes. It may also refer to: Business, organizat ...

is TiMi-F1 and the development focus is an AAA 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 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 o ...

on publishing

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