In the latest report, TikTok owner ByteDance has confirmed that it’s seeking buyers to sell its video games division. There have been rumors since last year regarding the company’s future plans for its gaming ambitions. Although it was behind one of the most popular titles of 2022, Marvel Snap, seems like the investment made by ByteDance has mostly failed so far.

The big confirmation was recently revealed by a reputed media outlet. It also mentioned that ByteDance is currently interacting with different companies to initial a deal. Interestingly, names of some of the top potential buyers have already emerged by now. One of them happens to be a very popular and the world’s largest company in the gaming industry.

Tencent might buy ByteDance’s gaming assets

For the uninitiated, ByteDance has been considering leaving the gaming industry for a long time, according to reports from November 2023. Following a restructure of its arm, Nuverse, the company had revealed to make a major shift. As a result, the development of many unreleased games was stopped by December. Meanwhile, already-launched titles like Marvel Snap, One Piece: The Voyage, and Crystal of Atland were divested.

In November last year, the situation regarding ByteDance’s struggle in the gaming space was first observed after it went on to look for potential buyers for its gaming unit, Moonton Technology. The Shanghai-based studio, known for giving the mobile title ‘Mobile Legends: Bang Bang’, was acquired by the company just two years ago.

ByteDance spent nearly $4 billion between 2019 and 2022 on acquisitions and investments in the gaming industry, as revealed by the SCMP news website. The media outlet also mentioned that the TikTok owner is now in talks with Tencent to sell its gaming assets after making the big decision.

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According to SCMP, ByteDance has lowered the valuation of its games studios to make sure the deal gets secured, eventually. So far, it has already spent almost $14 million on the development of different titles.

In 2022, ByteDance had also made layoffs in relation to its game operations. That’s another indicator of the early signs reflecting on its future plans to discontinue participation in the gaming industry; now, it’s actually going to happen this year.

Talking more about potential buyers, Tencent is currently the frontrunner for the deal. That’s also because its relations with ByteDance have improved over time. Tencent has made heavy use of ByteDance’s advertisement network to promote its newest game called DreamStar. The latter is a mobile title in which players can compete through different obstacles with their friends. Ahead of the release, it had already amassed 50 million registered users through a reservation system.

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