While Valve and Riot are battling it out with their own takes on Auto Chess, the studio behind the original Dota 2 is working on its standalone version. Now, it seems Drodo Studio will have a massive partner in bringing the game to market, as Tencent has signed on to co-publish Auto Chess in China.
Auto Chess is already available on mobile devices through publisher Dragonest, though an alpha for the PC version will launch on the Epic Games store later this week. Dragonest CEO Longfei Li announced the new partnership with Tencent in a statement on Chinese social media platform Weibo, which was translated by VPEsports.
“For a better development path of this game,” Li says, “as well as providing our players a more convenient and better gaming experience. We, after deliberate consideration, have decided to partner with Tencent to co-publish the Chinese mainland version of Drodo Auto Chess.” He adds that the partnership will let Drodo “grow in a faster and healthier pace.”
In addition to increased resources resources for the game’s development, this also means that Chinese players will be able to log in through Tencent’s social media platforms, like Wechat and Tencent QQ.
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Tencent now has a serious interest in the success of multiple autobattlers, as the conglomerate also wholly owns Riot, which is now working on Teamfight Tactics.