Tencent Woos Nintendo & Facebook To Expand Its Gaming & VR Market Share in China
- Lawrence Ng
- Feb 22, 2023
- 2 min read
Tencent is wooing Facebook and Nintendo in order to increase its virtual reality and gaming market share in China. According to Chinese technology news site 36Kr, Tencent's extended reality (XR) team is in negotiations with Meta, Facebook's parent company, about selling its Quest 2 VR gadget to Chinese customers in the future, despite recent employment layoffs.
These talks between Meta and Tencent has been in the works for over four months and would follow Tencent's recent deal with Nintendo to market a translated version of the Switch system in mainland China. While neither Tencent nor Meta has commented on the discussion, a source close to the situation revealed to the SCMP that the two businesses are in preliminary discussions about collaborating on Quest 2.
Meta, previously known as Facebook, changed its name in 2021 to reflect its increased emphasis on creating a new internet centred on shared virtual worlds. It acquired VR headset producer Oculus in 2014, and its Meta Quest 2 is presently the world's best-selling VR headset. However, it is facing growing competition from ByteDance's Pico, which owned around 15% of the worldwide market share in the third quarter of 2022, according to IDC statistics. During the same time span, Meta's market share declined from 90% to 75%.
Tencent has recently restructured its XR team and denied reports that it is closing the XR unit. The company had planned to buy Xiaomi-backed mobile smartphone firm Black Shark in order to concentrate the team on developing VR headsets for metaverse-related content, but it backed out of the deal last year owing to a lack of regulatory approval. They are now considering a variety of options for the future of its XR unit.
Tencent woos Facebook and Nintendo to boost its Chinese virtual reality and gaming market share. Despite recent layoffs, its extended reality (XR) team is in talks with Meta, Facebook's parent company, to sell its Quest 2 VR headset in China.
Meta and Tencent's four-month negotiations follow Tencent's recent arrangement with Nintendo to sell a translated Switch console in mainland China.
Facebook acquired Oculus in 2014 and created Meta Quest 2, the best-selling VR headset. Renamed Meta to reflect its focus on a new internet based on shared virtual worlds. It is currently facing stiff competition from ByteDance's Pico.
Tencent restructured its XR team and denied closure rumours. The company pulled out of a deal to buy Xiaomi-backed mobile phone maker Black Shark last year due to regulatory obstacles and is presently exploring other options.
