TikTok Parent Company Dropping Gaming Content, Lays Off Workers
By Movieguide® Contributor
ByteDance, TikTok’s parent company, announced earlier this week that it would be laying off hundreds of workers as it shuts down its mobile gaming branch, Nuverse.
Nuverse was launched in 2019 as ByteDance looked to get into the lucrative gaming business. It primarily focused its efforts on China, the world’s largest video game market.
The gaming branch found mild success in original titles “Crystal of Atlan” and “Earth: Revival,” along with its acquisition of the studio Moonton, whose hit game “Mobile Legends: Bang Bang” has over 1 billion downloads and 100 million monthly active users.
However, Nuverse has hardly made a dent in ByteDance’s finances, bringing in less than 1% of all revenue.
“Following a recent review, we’ve made the difficult decision to restructure our gaming business,” ByteDance announced. “We regularly review our businesses and make adjustments to center on long-term strategic growth areas.”
This decision comes as mobile gaming revenue is in an overall decline, prompting multiple companies to reconsider their investment in the industry.
“Some publishers are taking this moment to reassess big bets placed around the industry and are concluding that a worthwhile payoff may take longer than expected or be completely out of reach,” Neil Barbour, a research analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence, told CNN.
Amazon recently cut down on its gaming content as well, which has been available to Prime users for no extra cost. Earlier this month, the company let go of nearly 200 workers in the gaming sphere as it looked to step back from the industry.
However, not every company has lost faith in gaming. Netflix’s belief in its gaming library remains strong as it looks to expand its reach through new titles based on popular Netflix shows and movies, as well as by making gaming more accessible, allowing users to play on TVs and computers as well as on their phones.
YouTube is also interested in entering the gaming space, recently launching a library of mini-games accessible to players directly through the site, with no download necessary.
Movieguide® previously reported on Netflix’s gaming content:
Netflix is hoping that it can attract more users to the gaming side of the platform by turning more of its recognizable IPs into games.
According to the Wall Street Journal, Netflix is currently working on turning SQUID GAME and WEDNESDAY into games for its subscribers, with plans for EXTRACTION and BLACK MIRROR games later down the road.
These titles would join LOVE IS BLIND and THE QUEENS GAMBIT on Netflix’s game library, which has amassed over 70 titles since it launched at the end of 2020.
Some reports estimate that less than 1 percent of Netflix subscribers interact with the platform’s games on a daily basis. This statistic is troubling as the company has spent roughly $1 billion on its gaming service so far. With the addition of recognizable IPs, the platform hopes to drum up more interest from the 99 percent yet to try out the service.
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