Multiple video game titles from Tencent Holdings have disappeared from the top lists of the app store of smartphone maker Huawei Technologies, in sign of a deepening dispute between the two Shenzhen-based tech giants.
As of Friday, almost all of Tencent’s mobile games have disappeared from the top game rankings of Huawei’s app store, leaving three NetEase games – Eggy Party, Identity V and Fantasy Westward Journey – in the top positions.
A previous ranking on June 18 saw two Tencent titles – action role-playing game Dungeon & Fighter (DnF) Mobile and strategy game The Golden Spatula – rank first and eighth, respectively, on the list of bestselling games in the Huawei app store, according to a report by Chinese gaming media Gamelook earlier this week. It was unclear when the Tencent titles were removed from the lists.
Tencent and Huawei did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Friday.
The Tencent Games logo (left) and Huawei logo are show on smartphone screens. Photo: Shutterstock Images
The rift between Tencent and Huawei was laid bare a month ago after the video gaming giant pulled its hit title DnF Mobile from the Huawei store.
That move came after Tencent removed DnF Mobile – a runaway hit which is expected to gross around 6 billion yuan (US$826 million) annually – from the shelves of Android-based platforms, including those of Huawei, Oppo and Vivo, from June 20.
The company said in a notice at the time that the removal was because the contracts with those Chinese Android smartphone vendors expired less than a month after the video game’s launch.
Even though Tencent titles, other than DnF Mobile, are still available for download through the search function in the Huawei app store, the latest development shows a continuation of the long-running dispute between Tencent, which operates the world’s biggest video gaming business by revenue, and mainland Chinese distribution channels.
The dispute first spilled into public view on January 1, 2021, when Huawei announced it had removed Tencent’s mobile games from its app store. At the time, the move shocked netizens on the mainland because Huawei then accounted for 43 per cent of the domestic smartphone market and many of its users played popular Tencent video games such as Honour of Kings.
A screenshot of Tencent’s Dungeon & Fighter (DnF) Mobile game. Photo: Handout
Tencent’s games reappeared after a few hours on Huawei’s app store, with both sides claiming that their dispute was solved “after friendly negotiations”. Neither Huawei nor Tencent has offered an explanation for what happened.
Still, the situation may change in future, as Huawei’s HarmonyOS is on its way to break the dominance of Western mobile operating systems in mainland China, especially after its next version HarmonyOS Next ends support for Androidapps. After that, the two tech giants may have to renegotiate their terms on mobile game distribution.
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