Tencent has acquired an exclusive license for Crytek’s upcoming free-to-play online FPSWarfacein China. While details are still sparse, the pre-alpha footage makes it look like your typical military FPS. It will have PVE with “dramatic” co-op missions and the usual PVP stuff.
“Boring!” you might say. But keep in mind that Tencent is China’s biggest internet company based on market valuation. Their Internet Value-Added Services (IVAS) division has a number of games that are already hugely popular, notablythe South Korean FPSCrossFire, and the division made over $1 billion in revenues in thefirst half of 2010alone.
Growth for their IVAS division was expected toslow downfor the second half of 2010, mostly because it grew as fast as it did already, yetgrew regardless in Q3.Warfacemight shake things up even more when it is released in Asia. And if it performs even better thanCrossFire? Don’t be surprised to see more and more free-to-play FPS’s pop up in the US and Europe from 2012 onwards; EA’sBattlefield Heroeshas been doing pretty well already.
