How 1,600 staff at Tencent's MoreFun Studios, on the verge of collapse a decade ago, now fuel the company's ambitions for “evergreen” global gaming franchises
Bloomberg : X: @technology X: @technology : A decade ago, Tencent's MoreFun Studios was on the verge of collapse. Now the 1,600-strong operation and its leader Enzo Zhang are at the heart of the company's ambitions to craft international hits https://www.bloomberg.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
MoreFun’s recovery gives Tencent another large internal development center alongside TiMi, which was previously profiled as responsible for some of China’s most-played games. The new emphasis is not merely on domestic scale but on building durable international franchises.
It also fits Tencent’s earlier investment in game studios abroad as the company sought to diversify its gaming footprint beyond China. MoreFun makes that global strategy partly an in-house execution challenge rather than solely an acquisition or partnership effort.
First-order effects
- MoreFun’s 1,600 staff and leader Enzo Zhang become a central operating resource for Tencent’s push to create global, long-lasting game franchises.
- Tencent can apply a studio that once faced failure to a higher-stakes international product mandate, raising the importance of MoreFun’s creative and production decisions.
Second-order effects
- Tencent’s other studios, including the unit behind some of China’s most-played games, face a clearer internal benchmark for translating development scale into international hits.
- The company’s overseas studio investments may become more complementary to internal teams: external capabilities can support global reach while MoreFun supplies a larger proprietary development base.
Third-order effects
- If Tencent can repeatedly turn internal studios into enduring global franchises, large publishers may rely less on one-off releases and more on portfolios built for sustained audience engagement.
- The pattern points to a more concentrated contest for proven game-development talent and franchise-building capacity, though the article alone does not establish that MoreFun will produce a hit.
The trend: Tencent is shifting from China-centered game scale toward a global franchise strategy that combines internal studio depth with overseas expansion.