Honor of Kings

Honor of Kings is a mobile multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game, highly resembling PC games such as Dota 2 and League of Legends, the latter being developed and published by Riot Games, a subsidiary of Tencent.[10]

Either a Tencent QQ account or a WeChat account is required to play the game. If two players use the same account type on different mobile platforms (for example both have WeChat accounts, but one player uses an iOS device and the other uses uses an Android device), cross-platform multiplayer is possible, however, many in game functions are disabled (such as daily gifting and clan inviting). Different account types cannot access the other's matchmaking queue, even when using the same platform.

The basic gameplay across all game modes involve controlling a character with unique abilities to kill non-player characters and opponents to gain experience and gold, with experience used to unlock their character's abilities or further augment the ability's power, and gold used to purchase items at the shop (which change specific attributes depending on the item bought). Players then coordinate to knock down enemy's defensive structures called turrets, and victory is achieved by destroying the core building, located within the enemy team's base. Specific gameplay mechanics vary depending on the game mode chosen.

Experience and gold are also earned across matches, which are applied to player accounts. Accounts start at level 1, with level 30 being the maximum level. Upon leveling up, users receive bonus in-game awards. Gold can be used for a variety of purposes, such as purchasing new champions.

Players may choose between a wide variety of heroes, each with special abilities, cosmetic skins and backstories. There are a total of 6 types of heroes: Tank (defence-based), Fighter (close-combat), Assassin, Mage (magic damage), Marksman (long-range physical damage) and Support. The names of heroes usually originate from folklore, mythology, or mythical creatures, with others coming from works of literature, television/movies and even other in-game heroes (based on the game's internal folklore).

Some of the most popular and commonly played characters are Hou Yi, Diao Chan, Li Bai, Arthur and Da Ji.

Additionally, Tencent and SNK had collaboration, featuring Mai Shiranui from Fatal Fury and The King of Fighters series, Ukyou Tachibana, Nakoruru, and Haohmaru from Samurai Showdown as guest characters in Honor of Kings.

In 2015, Tencent approached Riot Games and asked them to turn their popular game League of Legends into a mobile title. However, Riot declined and claimed that League of Legends' gameplay could not be replicated on smartphones. Tencent then proceeded to create their own mobile game, Wangzhe Rongyao. The game was then adapted for international markets outside Mainland China, currently named Arena of Valor. In-game characters that were originally inspired from Chinese folklore and mythology were replaced by European folklore and mythologies from other nations to attract players from outside Mainland China.[11] In 2019, both Honor of Kings and Arena of Valor were the biggest mobile game in esports scene. Riot then realized and acknowledged the potential of the mobile market for MOBA games, and eventually announced League of Legends: Wild Rift on October 16, 2019, set to be released in 2020.[12]

The game received a beta release for iOS and Android platforms on November 26, 2015. In addition to a player versus environment (PvE) parkour mode, running mode, the game features player versus player (PvP) multiplayer battles. The game features many similarities to League of Legends.[13][10] In November 2016, Honor of Kings topped the 2016 China pan entertainment festival "China IP index value list - game list top 10".[14]

In 2016, the game had more than 50 million daily active users and more than 200 million registered users. The game grossed ¥10.4 billion[15] ($1.61 billion) in the last quarter of 2016. In May 2017, it became the highest-grossing mobile game in the world.[16] It had 160 million monthly active users.[17] In May 2017, entertainer Lu Han was named ambassador of the game.[18] In the month of February 2019, the game generated $1 billion.[19]

Honor of Kings will contribute about 50% of the Tencent's mobile gaming revenues in 2017 and it made about ¥3 billion in gross revenue in April 2017 ($435 million).[20] In June 2017, the analysis company APP Annie reported that Honor of Kings was the number 1 mobile game (excluding Android games) in the world in terms of income generated, with first quarter revenue of the game reaching $1.76 billion.[18] A cosmetic hero skin of Zhao Yun also had sold for $22 million in one day. At the time, Tencent reported 200 million registered users with 50 million daily active users.[18] The game grossed $911 million in the second quarter of 2017.[21] Between the last quarter of 2016 and the second quarter of 2017, the game grossed $4.281 billion.

In September 2017, Nintendo announced a deal with Tencent to bring Honor of Kings' international version Arena of Valor to the Nintendo Switch for international markets. As the console is not yet officially available in mainland China at this point in time, analysts anticipated that to support this deal, Nintendo would have to release the console in China by 2019.[22][23] Tencent is yet to comment in regards to a global release, even after public scrutiny.

In response to the national day of mourning designated on April 4, 2020 by China for those who had given up their lives or had passed away from the COVID-19 pandemic, all of Tencent's games announced a 24-hour suspension of service, which included Honor of Kings.

The game's music was composed by Hans Zimmer, Jeff Broadbent, Lorne Balfe and Duncan Watt,[24] and was performed and recorded by The Chamber Orchestra of London at Abbey Road Studios in London.

A soundtrack album was released on 28 October 2015.[25] The extended soundtrack released in year two includes every special event soundtrack since the game's release. Multiple score composers collaborated on the album, including Howard Shore, Thomas Parisch and Marcin Przybylowicz.[26]

Additional music has been composed by Neal Acree.[27]

As of 2019, there have been are several singers that have created songs for in-game heros, with Fang Wenjie singing for Cai Wenji, Han Hong singing for Dunhuang Feitian, Hua Chenyu singing for Luban No.7 and the group May singing for all the heros. The game is aiming to create a theme song for every single hero in the game.

On January 25, 2020, Unisonar released the game's score digitally for the first time internationally. The score's executive producers are Sam Yang and Cheney Wu, with coordination by Channel Chen, production by Vivita Zheng and Thomas Parisch, and Hongfei Zhao serving as music director. The album, Honor of Kings Original Game Soundtrack, Vol. 1, consists of 16 original tracks and was produced by TiMi Audio.[28][29]

On July 4, 2017, it was reported that the game owner’s Tencent had suffered a loss of $14 billion, or 4.1%, on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange after the People’s Daily criticized Honor of Kings (Wangzhe Rongyao) as a “poison” for young people, calling the content “a twist of values and historical views” and addictive.[5] Variety dubbed the two critical articles a “demonstration of the power of China’s state-run media and propaganda machine.”[5] Honor of Kings producer Lin Min afterwards noted online that the game’s design “fully complied with government requirements” and argued that “just like other forms of entertainment, games can be [a non-addictive] part of our normal daily lives.”[5]

In July 2017, Honor of Kings started limiting children under the age of 12 to one hour of play time per day, with an additional restriction from playing after 9pm. Children aged from 12 to 17 will be limited to two hours per day. It is believed that rising concerns over excessive gaming habits in children led Tencent to self-impose these restrictions.[30]

• Official website