While this is true, Tencent also owns major shares in a ton of the games that might be considered among the most popular, as well as minor shares in many of the companies they don't control.
Arena of Valor, most popular mobile MOBA game; 80m daily players as of Dec 2017 and I believe it's currently the biggest game worldwide despite mostly being popular in China (I think there are even stories of politicians delaying press conferences to finish a match lmao) - developed and published by Tencent
Fortnite - Tencent owns 40% of Epic Games
Clash of Clans - Tencent owns ~85% of Supercell
PUBG - They're working on acquiring 10% of Bluehole, developed PUBG mobile, and managed the (hugely successful) China release
This is completely ignoring their significant shares in Tesla, Snapchat, etc. And the fact that they're like, not an actual investment firm and have their own business, including WeChat, QQ, and their AI lab. League's decline in popularity is certainly bad for them, but relative to their entire operations it's only a small hit. This recent drop in market value is, in my opinion, better attributed to the doubts over tech stock valuations due to Facebook and Twitter.
When I used to play MotherLoad, the world was still a bright place, full of possibility. I was on track to finish from a prestigious high school, accepted into a prestigious university, and obviously going to end up pretty comfortable in life.
Little did I know, that within me I had the seeds of mental illness growing. Perhaps, one of the signs, if I only knew to pay attention to it, was how "addicting" games were to me. I think the world back then just thought a lot less about those things, if you could still manage to be outwardly successful.
No one worried about what it meant that some kids finding a vibrant, "safer" environment in video games, than in the real world.
Sometimes I upvote things purely for their literary quality.
I have no knowledge of "Motherload," nor any interest in modern games. But those few lines about your (your character's ?) interaction with it, makes me want to know how this story unfolds.
I loved that game. I wrote a copy of it for desktop in c++ at the end of high school:
https://github.com/Sytten/MineDeeper
Please don't judge my code quality I was 16 at the time :)
No offense, but that comment goes to show US centric HN is. This is like valuing Microsoft based on XBox sales, only that it plays an even smaller role.
Yes, they do, QQ being exhibit A. But League of Legends was supposed to be their first major step into the larger world of 100 million player+ games, worldwide. Riot has yet to produce another game, and their seat atop the gaming market is now gone.
It wasn't their biggest money maker, but it was their biggest money maker outside of China, and investors really liked the idea of global growth.
pubg was bound to be a flash in the pan. i don't know how they would be able to fix it short of completely reworking it. 10 minutes of looting, then rip after getting shot from across the map
Measured in revenue, it has to be Fortnite: Epic is apparently printing money to the tune of $100MM/month from it. And anecdotally, over the course of just a couple months it certainly seems like every single person under the age of 18 in the United States started playing it.
depends on what sphere you're looking at. the overwatch league is poised to take over in the esports scene while fortnite is gobbling up the casual playerbase.
note that this is north america focused, i have no clue about europe, south korea, or china.
