BEIJING, April 7 (TMTPOST) — Chinese game giant Tencent’s mobile e-sports platform eGame announced that it will cease operation at 23:59, June 7, 2022.

The announcement says that eGame will first suspend the registration of new users, hosts and guilds and turn off the recharge function at 13:30, April 7. The platform will suspend all features of eGame (except customer service) and remove the mobile application from all application marketplaces at 23:59, June 7. Users will then no longer be able to log into eGame. Livestreaming function will also be disabled.

This marks eGame’s exit from the market. A senior management member of the e-sports department of a publicly listed company told Securities Daily that the new development was expected.

Tencent’s eGame was launched at the Shanghai ChinaJoy exhibition in July 2016 by QQ.com, QQ Mobile Games and Tencent Interactive Entertainment. The platform was also supported by Tencent’s Social Networking Group, Online Media Group, Interactive Entertainment Group.

Game industry analyst Zhang Shule believes that eGame is different from other game livestreaming platform because it has access to Tencent’s game library, including Honor of King, Game for Peace, League of Legends Mobile, etc. In addition, Tencent’s social media platform also helped bring traffic to eGame.

Tencent invested US$630 million and US$460 million in Douyu and Huya on March 8, 2018, becoming the biggest shareholder of the former and the second-biggest shareholder of the latter.

Six months later, Tencent announced that its Social Networking Group and Online Media Group would undergo organizational adjustment.

In the subsequent two years, Tencent eGame failed to gain popularity. Huya and Douyu both became publicly listed. Tencent has since then been working to merge the two livestreaming platforms. In October 2020, a merger plan showed that Tencent’s eGame (valued at US$500 million) would merge with Douyu, eventually achieving the merger of the three companies.

But the merger plan was halted by the market regulator on July 10, 2021.