Another game is coming from South Korea to the West with the backing of one of the biggest gaming companies in the world.
4:33 Creative Lab is bringing a new version of the hack-n-slash role-playing game Blade: Redemption to the States for iOS and Android devices later this year. It’s doing so with the support of Tencent, a Chinese company that has its fingers in gaming across the globe; and the Japanese messaging service Line, which has its own thriving game business. Such partners are key in helping a game find the support it needs in the ultracrowded $30 billion mobile market.
Even as mobile gaming continues to have smashing successes in China, Japan, and Vietnam, Asian companies are looking to break into the United States, a market where players spend more on mobile than in any other.
The free-to-play Blade did well in South Korea, where it reached No. 4 on Google Play. It emphasizes competitive multiplayer, with player-vs-player combat in arena battles. But it also has a sizable single-player campaign (with 80 dungeons), the press release touts, with a “fast-paced combat system with multiple character powers.” But what stands out is that it’s a mobile game that uses the Unreal Engine — which is no surprise, since one of the companies that Tencent has a stake in is Epic Games, the makers of the Unreal toolkit.