Let’s put it out there: not a single successful multiplayer FPS on mobile has come from the West. More broadly, it seems practically every big Western IP that moves to mobile is developed by a studio in the East. So, let’s look at how this happened, and if Western studios can remain competitive in the future.

Origins of the Tencent Deals

The biggest success stories are undoubtedly PUBG Mobile and Call of Duty: Mobile. Both have generated well over $1B in revenue and show no signs of slowing down.

PUBG Mobile, which launched in March 2018, arrived only four months after the Windows release of PUBG. While the original PUBG was developed by South Korea’s Bluehole (now Krafton), the mobile version was created by Tencent’s LightSpeed & Quantum Studio.

A year later, Call of Duty made its mobile debut. Activision had been eyeing a mobile version for years, and initially assigned the project to Candy Crush maker King, which it acquired in 2016. King’s Stockholm-based team spent over a year developing a mobile shooter version of Call of Duty, but it was eventually canned. Instead, Activision struck a deal with Tencent to co-develop Call of Duty: Mobile, this time with Tencent’s TiMi Studios, which released the game in late 2019.

Call of Duty wasn’t the only project affected by this trend. EA’s Battlefield Mobile, another FPS with high hopes, faced similar issues. EA assigned the project to its own studio, Industrial Toys, which worked on it for years before Battlefield Mobile was ultimately canceled in 2023.

Calling up Tencent to save your mobile FPS project doesn’t guarantee success, though. LightSpeed, the studio that developed PUBG Mobile, also partnered with EA to create Apex Legends Mobile, which launched in May 2022. Despite initially meeting player expectations, Apex Legends Mobile suffered from content delays and lackluster live operations, leading EA to sunset the game just a year after its release in 2023.

Beyond First-Person Shooters

While Krafton and Activision found success partnering with Tencent for shooters, Activision took a different route with Diablo. Announced at BlizzCon 2018, Diablo Immortal was developed in partnership with Chinese developer NetEase. Released in 2022, the game has made an impressive $400M in revenue with 35M downloads, a success by any metric. Meanwhile, Blizzard’s own Warcraft Rumble, developed internally, launched a year later but has seen only modest success compared to Diablo Immortal.

The latest example in the trend for Chinese-made Western IP on mobile is Age of Empires, which debuted on October 17. Developed by Microsoft’s World’s Edge studio in partnership with Tencent’s TiMi Studios, Age of Empires Mobile brings a 4X twist to the beloved franchise. Though some fans might miss the traditional RTS gameplay, the game is off to a strong start, already generating hundreds of thousands per day in revenue. Whether it has the staying power to compete directly with titles like Last War and Whiteout Survival remains to be seen.

The partnerships that brought Diablo Immortal and Age of Empires Mobile to life show a strategic alignment of incentives. Tencent and NetEase have actively invested in Western gaming companies, and by having a financial stake, these companies make it easier for Western developers to justify handing over these projects, knowing that their Chinese counterparts are equally invested in the IP's success.

The Chinese Advantage

So why are Western companies entrusting so many of their flagship franchises to Chinese developers? While access to the Chinese market is undoubtedly a draw, these games also succeed remarkably well in the West. Chinese studios, particularly Tencent and NetEase, offer advantages that go beyond market access. Key factors include their expertise in progression systems and monetization, experience in optimizing gameplay for mobile, and a disciplined approach to production.

Chinese developers have mastered the fine details of free-to-play progression systems, which is where the monetization potential truly lies. Western studios may be familiar with season passes, cosmetics, and other monetization methods, but Chinese studios excel in the precise execution of these models.

These systems are supported by aggressive live operations, with a constant stream of new maps, game modes, and characters to keep players engaged. The result is simple: shooters developed in the East generally make more money per download than their Western counterparts.

Perhaps the Chinese approach to free-to-play products is more pragmatic and business-oriented. This is in contrast with the design-centric focus seen in many Western studios, where the emphasis is often on crafting unique gameplay experiences rather than prioritizing monetization from the outset – for better or for worse.

Accessibility is another cornerstone of Chinese studios’ success. They are accustomed to designing for mobile-first audiences, whereas many Western FPS teams are used to developing for PC and console; this results in games that run smoothly even on lower-end Android devices. Free Fire is a prime example of this, with its small download size and optimized performance. It has thrived in regions where many players use older phones.

Finally, Chinese developers approach production with a certain discipline and pragmatism. These studios are experts at adapting popular PC or console experiences for mobile with appropriate free-to-play progression, and can do it fast. This may appear to be simple, but in practice, it’s challenging to execute. Not only is this no-nonsense approach hard to copy, it is hard for Western studios to compete in sheer speed as long as Chinese studios continue to work 70 hour weeks.

Can the West Compete?

There’s no inherent reason a Western studio couldn’t make a successful mobile adaptation. Tencent and NetEase have managed to secure deals with PC and console giants that have valuable IPs and ambitious mobile goals, but lack internal free-to-play expertise. For Western studios holding legacy IPs, these Chinese partners simply offer the most straightforward path to mobile success.

While the West has no shortage of free-to-play expertise, it lacks genre specialization in certain categories, such as FPS. Large mobile studios such as Moon Active and Scopely know how to create profitable, addictive mobile games, but they typically focus on different genres. For giants like EA and Microsoft to partner with Western studios over Chinese ones, the deal would have to be mutually attractive – a balance that’s not easy to strike.

The cancellation of Apex Legends Mobile and Activision’s shift of Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile to U.S. teams hinted at a move back to internal, Western development. But with Warzone Mobile falling short of expectations, Tencent and NetEase remain the go-to studios for many Western IPs on mobile.

This trend looks set to continue with upcoming releases like Valorant Mobile (Riot/Tencent), Delta Force Mobile (TiMi/Tencent), and Destiny: Rising (NetEase). Meanwhile, Ubisoft’s Rainbow Six Mobile, developed in Montreal, is also slated for next year. If Ubisoft and other Western studios want to compete, they’ll need to master the trio of deep progression systems, relentless live ops, and flawless technical performance.

In certain genres such as shooters and 4X, Chinese dominance is likely to continue, as building expertise in large-scale mobile games demands significant investment and experience. For now, Chinese studios have a competitive edge and firm grip on genre mastery in these high-demand categories.

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