Tencent’s TiMi Studios announces strategic partnership with Xbox Game Studios

Microsoft’s gaming division Xbox Game Studios will cooperate with Chinese TiMi Studios, known for games like Honor of Kings and Call of Duty: Mobile.

The partnership was announced on May 13, with TiMi Studios saying that both companies will “jointly create excellent game content and bring a new game sensory experience to the majority of players.”

The details of the deal remain unknown, but companies will share more information later this year. According to Niko Partners senior analyst Daniel Ahmad, the partnership could help Xbox boost its IPs in China ahead of the upcoming Xbox Series X|S launch, as well as help TiMi Studios boost its own global appeal.

He also noted that this is “not a hardware-related announcement,” so TiMi Studios won’t be involved in distributing Xbox in China as Tencent has already been doing with Nintendo Switch.

TiMi Studios is now one of the biggest studios in the world, as it earned $10 billion last year. The company’s biggest hit Honor of Kings reached $2.5 billion in revenue in 2020, according to Sensor Tower.

The studio is now working on the new MOBA Pokémon Unite for Nintendo Switch and mobile. After that, TiMi Studios will start developing AAA titles for PC and consoles. According to Ahmad, the studio’s unannounced AAA shooter will run on Unreal Engine 5.