Timi Studio Group, the game publisher owned by Chinese tech behemoth Tencent, could be working on bringing a new Pokémon game to China.
In a brief statement on its Weibo account, the Chengdu-based game publisher which is behind Tencent’s phenomenally successful Honour of Kings and Game for Peace titles, said it would develop a new game with the Pokémon Company, the Japanese company that owns the Pokémon brand.
The Pokémon Company, which was founded in 1998, says on its website that it is responsible for “brand management, licensing, marketing, the Pokémon Trading Card Game, the animated TV series, home entertainment, and the official Pokémon website.” Viral game Pokémon Go is a Pokémon franchise.
“If it’s a console game, it would be explosive,” Liao Xuhua, a gaming analyst at Beijing-based data consultancy Analysys, told KrASIA. Timi Studio Group developing a Pokémon console game would mean that Tencent and Nintendo’s cooperation has been elevated from distribution to co-development, Liao added.
Though it is not immediately clear what type of game or what platform the game would be on, Timi’s parent company Tencent has been approved to sell the Nintendo Switch gaming device in China in April. Tencent has also reportedly been setting up a team to oversee its cooperation with Nintendo.