ISLAMABAD: TikTok’s parent company, ByteDance, is exiting the international video gaming market and will close its Nuverse gaming division. The decision follows an internal strategic review, with the company stating it is restructuring its gaming operations but providing few additional details.
A spokesperson at ByteDance said that it regularly reviews its businesses and makes adjustments to concentrate on long-term strategic growth areas. After an evaluation, we have decided to reorganize our gaming business, which has been a challenging decision, according to Reuters.
The four individuals with direct knowledge of the situation said that workers on unreleased Nuverse games will be directed to stop development by December. The company will also sell off games that are already launched.
The relocation is likely to impact hundreds of employees, with some of them finding out about the decision over the weekend. TikTok parent company ByteDance is not planning to re-enter the $185 billion global gaming market, the sources said, asking not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the information.
The reorganization will not affect ByteDance’s casual gaming brand Ohayoo, which distributes games on Douyin – the Chinese version of TikTok, as well as casual games integrated into TikTok.
In the first half of this month, Reuters reported that ByteDance had started seeking buyers of Moonton Technology, a game development subsidiary it acquired in 2021. The company has also, in the recent past, restructured its virtual reality division, Pico, retrenching most of its content team.
The creation of Nuverse in 2019 was viewed as a serious effort by ByteDance to compete with the domestic giant Tencent, the largest gaming company in the world. Nuverse was also framed as an important element of the overall expansion strategy of ByteDance, and subsequently, it was listed among the six core business units of the company.
Nevertheless, Nuverse did not achieve commercial success. Its most notable game, Marvel Snap, has acquired a devoted following but has not been able to bring in large amounts of money. Its other games include One Piece: The Voyage and Crystal of Atland.
In order to improve its development capacity, Nuverse had already purchased external studios like C4games in 2021. This new trend, however, is a big step back from its previous investment in mainstream gaming.
