An Improbable Tencent Cloud partnership has been announced, paving the way for more games development to take place in China. Furthermore, the partnership will be launching a new developer program with a specific focus on the Chinese market.
If you're unfamiliar with Improbable, they're a company that was in dire straits at the beginning of 2019 when a change in Unity's terms of service put their status as a middleware provider (and consequently, the fate of potentially hundreds of games) at risk. That issue was thankfully resolved within a week.
Since then, Improbable has spent their time expanding, announcing two new internal studios and acquiring the developer behind a game called Scavengers. Now, they're teaming up with Tencent Cloud in order to bring their Spatial OS multiplayer platform to game developers in the region.
Improbable Tencent Cloud Partnership Brings SpatialOS to China
The partnership between the two companies will see the expansion of their SpatialOS technology into China. Simply put, SpatialOS is a tech that makes it easier for developers to make multiplayer games in the Unity engine by leveraging the power of cloud computing. This partnership will allow Tencent Cloud to provide SpatialOS to game developers in the Chinese market under license.
Furthermore, Improbable has announced the launch of The Improbable/Tencent Cloud Developer Program. This program will provide support and servers up to a value of $10 Million (≈RMB 72 Million), easing any economic risks that may be faced by smaller developers.
"Today’s partnership with Tencent Cloud marks a major milestone for us in China," Improbable COO and CEO for Asia Peter Lipka said in a blog post on the company's website. "Not only is China a market of vital strategic importance for Improbable, but I have personally witnessed the great quality of developers here. I am very excited to work closely with Tencent Cloud to help Chinese game developers bring their games to life using SpatialOS."
What do you think of the Improbable Tencent Cloud partnership? Do you think this will improve the state of gaming in China? Let us know in the comments below!