The cloud computing arm of Chinese gaming and social giant Tencent has unveiled a new “metaverse-in-a-box” offering to get in on the growing demand for cloud-based game development tools.
Tencent Cloud said in a statement that it wanted to support the development of the web3 ecosystem and would work with web3 infrastructure provider Ankr to develop a full suite of blockchain API services.
It has also signed memorandums of understanding with blockchain partners Avalanche, Scroll and Sui.
“With more businesses now keen to explore and adapt to an efficient, transparent digital future, we are ready to leverage our many years of technical experience in the fields of games, audio, and video to provide strong technical support for web3, and work with industry partners to create a more immersive experience and nurture a better web3 ecosystem,” Tencent Cloud’s Poshu Yeung said.
The “metaverse-in-a-box” product is designed to allow web3 game developers to run games on a distributed network without relying on centralized servers or intermediaries, and comes with features such as low latency and asset management.
It would also provide users with cross-chain interoperability, NFT minting and decentralized storage.
The new partnerships, revealed at a global web3 conference in Singapore, add weight to reports the Chinese government’s aversion to crypto could be softening.
According to Bloomberg, Chinese officials are comfortable with Hong Kong’s ambitions to become a crypto hub, even if they are not saying so publicly.
Tencent owns social app WeChat and its games studios are responsible for hit titles such as Honor of Kings, Valorant, Player Unknown: Battlegrounds, and League of Legends.
