Arena of Valor (formerly Realm of Valor then Strike of Kings) is a Western adaptation of Honor of Kings or Kings of Glory (Chinese: ????; pinyin: Wángzh? Róngyào) for markets outside mainland China. It is a multiplayer online battle arena published by Tencent Games. In July 2017, it was reported that the game had over 80 million daily active players and 200 million monthly active players. It is the world's most profitable (top grossing) game and most popular free-download app.
In September 2017, Nintendo has announced a partnership with Tencent to bring the game on Nintendo Switch, due to the game's tremendous popularity.
Video Arena of Valor
History
The game received a beta release for iOS and Android platforms on November 26, 2015. In addition to a PVE adventure mode, the game features PVP multiplayer battles. The game features many similarities to League of Legends which is produced by Riot Games, a company owned by Tencent. In November 2016, Kings of Glory topped the 2016 China pan entertainment festival "China IP index value list - game list top 10".
In 2016, the game had more than 50 million daily active users and more than 200 million registered users. In May 2017 it became the highest-grossing mobile game in the world and it had 160 million monthly active users. In May 2017, entertainer Lu Han was named ambassador of the game.
According to an analyst at BOC International, Kings of Glory will contribute about 50% of the Tencent's mobile gaming revenues in 2017 and It made about 3 billion Yuan in gross revenue in April 2017 ($435M). In June 2017, the analysis company APP Annie reported that Kings of Glory was the number 1 mobile game (excluding Android games) in the world in terms of income generation, with first quarter revenue of the game reaching US $1.76 billion. A 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.
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 Kings of Glory as "poison" for young people, calling the content "a twist of values and historical views" and addictive. Variety dubbed the two critical articles a "demonstration of the power of China's state-run media and propaganda machine." Kings of Glory 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."
In July 2017, Kings of Glory started limiting children under the age of 12 to one hour of play time per day. Children aged 12 to 18 will be limited to two hours game time per day. Players under 12 will also be banned from playing the game after 9pm. It is believed that rising concerns over excessive gaming habits in children led Tencent, the game owner, to self-impose these restrictions.
In November 5, 2017, the YouTube channel "Mobile MOBA Vi?t" reached 1 million subscribers, making it the first and biggest channel with contents about Arena of Valor.
Maps Arena of Valor
Gameplay
The gameplay of Kings of Glory highly resembles another game published by Tencent, League of Legends.
The Chinese version of the game requires either a Tencent QQ account or a WeChat account. Other versions of the game can be played as guest, which will later link his/her progress to a Facebook account. The Garena AOV versions of the game (published by Garena) require either a Garena or a Facebook account. However the servers are not completely in sync. If using the same account type on different platform, multiplayer with your WeChat friend is possible however many functions in game are disabled (daily gifting, profile viewing and clan inviting). Different account types cannot access the other's matchmaking queue, even on the same platform.
In September 2017, Nintendo announced a deal with Tencent to bring Kings of Glory to the Nintendo Switch. As the console is not yet sold in China at this point in time, analysts anticipate that to support this deal, Nintendo will be releasing the console in China by 2019.
Soundtrack
A soundtrack album was released on 28 October 2015. The original soundtrack for Kings of Glory features heavily on Chinese instrumental. It is available free on QQ Music, but can only be downloaded using premium membership. The music was composed by Hans Zimmer, Jeff Broadbent and Duncan Watt. The soundtrack is played by The Chamber Orchestra of London, and recorded by Abbey Road Studios.
Marketing and release
Arena of Valor (formerly Strike of Kings) is a Western adaptation of Honor of Kings or Kings of Glory (????) for markets outside mainland China.
According to Tencent Games, this is a regional game and will not have a global server. The game is released in separated servers with different names: in Taiwan (????), Vietnam (Liên Quân Mobile), Thailand (Realm of Valor), Indonesia (Garena AOV Indonesia) by Garena, in Europe (Arena of Valor) by Proxima Beta, in South Korea (????) by Netmarble Games.
Although the test server open exclusive only for Vietnam version "Liên Quân Mobile", players from other countries can join this server via VPN to try out new heroes and skins before they release on main versions.
The game is developed by Timi Studio Group and licensed by Tencent Games with the same engine, design and music composing team. However, the in-game characters have been swapped from characters inspired by Chinese folklore and mythology, to characters inspired by European folklore.
Arena of Valor was first launched in Taiwan in October 14, 2016, following a two-week closed beta testing period. In October 2017, "Arena of Valor" was launched in the Philippines, Singapore and Malaysia where majority of the gaming community are playing mobile games. Garena decided to combined these three countries in one server. The game was released in some European app stores in August 2017, and was released in North and South American mobile app stores on December 19, 2017.
Accolades
Arena of Valor was nominated for "Original Dramatic Score, New IP" at the upcoming NAVGTR Awards.
References
Source of article : Wikipedia
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