DeNA bringing Tencent's Arena of Valor to Japan

Tencent has partnered with Japanese publisher DeNA to launch Arena of Valor in the latter's home market.

Arena of Valor is the international version of Honour of Kings, one of Tencent's flagship titles in its domestic market of China. The game has more than 200 million registered users and is one of the highest grossing mobile titles in the world.

DeNA will be responsible for the Japanese launch of Arena of Valor, handling marketing, text localisation and the ongoing operational support that live mobile games like this require.

Pre-registration is open now via a website for the Japanese version, although a specific release date has yet to be given.

DeNA is already well known for partnering with other major games firms, perhaps most notably as the chosen partner for Nintendo's push into mobile with games such as Fire Emblem Heroes and Super Mario Run.

The Japanese launch for Arena of Valor will hopefully offset some of the struggles Tencent faces in its home market. With the restructuring of a key government body freezing all new game approvals since March, plus limits on how certain titles can be monetised, the company has seen its market value drop by more than $160 million since January.

Last month, the firm announced it will restructure for the first time in six years to better adapt to the current situation.