TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, has sold Red Alert Online developer C4 Games to film and entertainment company China Ruyi for 259 million yen ($35.8 million).
According to Niko Partners' findings, this deal shows that China Ruyi will buy 100% of the studio's shares. The developer will continue to operate on Red Alert Online after the deal and Tencent will remain the game's publisher. Niko Partners said Tencent currently owns 21.97% of shares in China Ruyi. The new owner said Red Alert Online has demonstrated steady performance over the past three years and is confident it will continue to generate “significant revenue” in the future.
ByteDance sells Red Alert Online. Photo: IGN.
According to AppMagic's estimates, this game has accumulated 385.9 million USD from China's Apple App Store since its launch. However, in 2023 alone, the title earned $32.4 million. In a filing with the Hong Kong Exchange, China Ruyi said C4 Games generated an after-tax profit of 2.9 million yen ($401k) in 2022, down from 4.4 million yen ($610k). ) in 2021.
ByteDance acquired C4 Games in April 2021 for an undisclosed fee as part of the company's expansion into gaming. Since then, the TikTok maker has exited the industry and is “scaling down” its activities in this area. Earlier in the month, they sold two studios to Tencent – one based in Shenzhen rumored to be working on an action game and the other based in East China, said to be developing a anime title.
The game brings high revenue to ByteDance. Photo: SCMP.
Previously, ByteDance had not made much progress in challenging giants like Tencent and NetEase in the gaming sector. As part of a broader cost-cutting effort in the gaming business, ByteDance initially considered selling Moonton in an attempt to refocus its business on core products such as Douyin and TikTok. Both Douyin and TikTok are growing rapidly in adjacent areas such as advertising revenue and e-commerce. After cutting hundreds of game development jobs and terminating several projects, ByteDance appointed Huawei's former human resources chief in March to run its much-shrinking games unit.
