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"It's been long-awaited, but\u00A0Chinese Internet firm Tencent has finally started the international rollout of games it released for its mobile messaging app WeChat, a crucial step in its evolution to become more like a social platform and not just a chat app.\r\n\r\nWeChat games are finally available worldwide now. The Game Center is located under the \u2018Discover\u2019 tab in the messaging service, and there are three titles at launch -- Craz3 Match, Gunz Dash and 2Day's Match. Clicking on the 'download' button for each specific game listed in WeChat takes you to the App Store where you have to download it separately.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nYou can either play these games solo, or play with your WeChat friends and compare your scores with theirs.\u00A0Making full use of its location-based services, WeChat players can also search for other players nearby to find opponents.\r\n\r\nIn August last year, Tencent\u00A0introduced games\u00A0to\u00A0Weixin, the version of WeChat available in China. In November, the WeChat Game Center took its first step overseas after being\u00A0rolled out in Hong Kong.\r\n\r\nGames are already showing promise on Tencent\u2019s Weixin and QQ platforms, even if only in mainland China. Five games released through the two services had 570 million registered users within three months.\r\n\r\nHowever, a recent report from\u00A0\u00A0Chinese Android app store\u00A0Wandoujia\u00A0\u2013 which monitors trends in China\u2019s mobile market based on its downloads \u2014 noted that WePop, a game that shot to popularity via WeChat, plummeted from its peak within one month, and observed that &amp;quot;virality is no guarantee of retention.&amp;quot; When asked about this,\u00A0Louis Song, the country manager of Singapore and Malaysia at Tencent's international business group, told TNW that it is normal for users to get bored of games easily, and that the company will strive to roll out new games regularly.\r\n\r\nWeChat's rival, Japanese messaging service\u00A0Line, already offers over 30 games to its\u00A0300 million registered users\u00A0worldwide, and passed\u00A0200 million game downloads\u00A0in September -- providing a strong case for mobile gaming within a social service.\r\n\r\nWeChat has more than\u00A0270 million active users\u00A0worldwide, and getting them engaged in games could help the company\u00A0monetize via avenues such as in-app game purchases.\r\n\r\nHeadline image via WeChat"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/apps/2014/01/13/chinese-messaging-app-wechat-takes-its-games-across-the-world-in-a-bid-to-become-a-social-platform/?fromcat=all>