This week Chinese social gaming giant Tencent launches its first Facebook game, a multiplayer casual puzzle game called Treasure Hunter. The game was previously launched in the US as part of the AOL IM push to include more casual gaming content. Tencent’s US managers Leon Kitain and Brad Bao refer to the game’s launch on Facebook as a “market research project” (via Inside Social Games).
Treasure Hunter appears to be a test of how well Americans would respond to the sort of synchronous multiplayer titles that form the backbone of Tencent’s gaming business in China. The games usually feature avatars that users can customize by buying virtual items, which is one of Tencent’s main revenue streams in China. Tencent’s QQ Games channel draws 6 million peak concurrent users.
If Treasure Hunter picked up a follow on Facebook, then it seems likely that Tencent could begin releasing more of its casual games for the platform. That could make Tencent into a serious competitor for the likes of Zynga, Playfish, and Playdom. While Zynga’s 2009 revenues are rumored to be around $250 million, Tencent announced 2008 earnings of nearly $1 billion based on its Chinese operations alone.
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