Considering that the Chinese mobile gaming market is a monster ($7.1 billion and rising), it’s no surprise that highly popular game publisher Ubisoft wants to get in on the action. The company officially announced that it will release a pair of Android games in China alongside its publishing partner Ourpalm.
The first game will be its mobile hit Hungry Shark World (the follow-up to Hungry Shark Evolution), in which players control a predator of the sea as it fights to stay alive by devouring everything in sight, along with an unannounced title in its Assassin’s Creed franchise. Both titles should be huge draws, but the company is most interested in seeing what kind of impact Hungry Shark World makes in this new market, considering how it has already drawn over 51 million unique players since its release in other countries, including the U.S.
“Hungry Shark mania is on in China and we are really confident with the launch of this new episode, which is even bigger, hungrier, and sharkier,” said Aurelien Palasse, Ubisoft’s head of publishing for Greater China.,” said Aurelien Palasse, head of publishing, Greater China, Ubisoft.
The Assassin’s Creed game is set to be a massively-multiplayer online role-playing game being co-developed by Ourpalm, but neither company has divulged any new details about it.
“We’ve got our most experienced team working on the new Assassin’s Creed title, and have high expectations for it,” said Zhang Pei, vice president of operations for Ourpalm. “We can wait to show the Assassin’s Creed community in China what the game is about.”
The partnership was first announced in 2014, with Chris Zhang, Beijing Ourpalm VP, stating in a press release that, “Hungry Shark Evolution already has performed excellently in Europe and the United States, and we are aiming to bring it and more games from around the world to local Chinese gamers, starting with this deepening of our strategic cooperation with Ubisoft.”
These games could be the first steps to even more games hitting China in the future. After all, its mobile Rayman games (including Rayman Adventures) have been big hits with fans, and Ubisoft has a number of other games in its portfolio that could potentially take off in China.
For now, at least, the companies are moving slowly but surely into the market, and it could certainly pay off in the long run.
