In the most recent fan interaction held by Tencent during the live stream commemorating their game Honor of Kings on its seventh anniversary, we learned about the Honor of Kings IP expansion showing four new major projects built around the game. But while at that, we noticed striking similarities between the future planning of Tencent with Riot‘s already established project of expanding their League of Legends IP.
What is an IP expansion
The term IP stands for Intellectual Property and represents all the properties owned by a company in an intangible form and includes but is not limited to all sorts of media, images, games, etc., and forms an important part of a company’s online and digital facade.
Similarly, the title Honor of Kings IP is a big part of Tencent games and is very crucial to the company. And in order to amplify the influence and profit the game has, Tencent is gearing up with its Honor of Kings IP expansion by diversifying the content built around the game.
Parallels of the Honor of Kings IP with League of Legends IP
As stated above, with the release of the new announcements from Tencent on the seventh-anniversary stream of Honor of Kings, we got to see a set of announcements that are similar to the existing universe of League of Legends, the flagship title of Riot Games. Here we will take a look at a few of those similarities.
1. PvP fighting game: Project L and Codenamed Breaking Dawn
In the seventh anniversary stream of Honor of Kings, Tencent announced that a brand new fighting game based in the HoK universe is in the works and will be released sometime soon. Honor of Kings is traditionally a MOBA game and although still massively popular, there are players who reckon that MOBA games are not their cup of tea. Therefore bringing the new game Codenamed Breaking Dawn could be an attempt to cater to those players.
Similarly, during the tenth-anniversary stream of the iconic League of Legends back in 2019, game-developing giants Riot Games announced that they will be making a new fighting game pitching players against each other.
The project is currently known as Project L and is still in the works and we might be seeing the game revealed anytime soon. Therefore we can see how two major companies are using their game’s already-established fanbase to try out new projects and make the IP more expansive if possible.
2. Autochess: TFT Mobile and King’s Chess
Back in 2019, in the previously mentioned tenth-anniversary stream of League of Legends, it was declared that Teamfight Tactics, or TFT would be released on Android, iOS, and PC platforms. A part of the League of Legends IP, the game employs the use of the auto-battle format, much like DOTA Auto Chess.
Although it states chess, it really is not chess as there are only seven players or pieces in the arena at any given point. The pieces are based on characters from the League of Legends MOBA and you have to make the best possible team from those characters and pitch them against another player in an automated battle.
Honor of Kings, as confirmed by Tencent, will follow a strikingly similar path and will develop an automatic chess game of themselves soon. Titled King’s Chess, it will feature characters and warriors from the Honor of Kings game as the chess pieces in the King’s Chess game where you will have to try and build the best possible lineup to defeat the opponent. And judging from the first-look trailers, the game does look great and should be a fun one, to say the least.
3. Open-world title: Project F and Honor of Kings World
In the aforementioned seventh-anniversary stream of Honor of Kings, we also got to see a third game being announced, and the last game of the stream which is also the biggest. Honor of Kings: World will be an open-world game where players will be able to explore the world of Honor of Kings freely while partaking in other activities such as slaying bosses and interacting with friends in the virtual world. It will be similar to the likes of Genshin Impact and will feature an underwater environment and also flight.
Meanwhile, Project F is the codename of an ARPG that is said to be in the works by Riot Games. The game was said to have been based on the popular title Runeterra and was announced alongside titles such as VALORANT, Wild Rift, and Project L.
But contrary to the games mentioned just now, Project F has barely received any updates regarding its state of development right now and thus makes the future of the game really obscure. But that does not stop the comparisons it can draw to itself when compared to Honor of Kings: World.
4. Animated series: Arcane and Baili Brothers
If you are someone who stays well-updated on games or keeps up with popular web series, then you have most probably heard about Arcane. The popular highly acclaimed animated series recently gained a lot of attention and traction due to being extremely well-animated, with well-made fight scenes and a strong storyline.
The nine-episode series has been directly based on the world of League of Legends, and mainly follows the characters of Jinx and Vi. This opened a whole new world to the IP of League of Legends which soared once this project became a reality.
Now, Honor of Kings is looking to do something similar as well, as is evident from their announcement of the Baili Brothers movie. The movie follows the story of two brothers who are characters in the game Honor Kings, called Shouyue Baili and Xu Baili. The trailer of the movie is captivating and looks like something that could potentially go a long way if executed properly. But will it be a competitor to Arcane based on quality? That remains to be seen.
Final thoughts
As is evident from the above points of comparison, it is evident that Tencent is intentionally or unintentionally following the same model set for IP expansion like that of Riot Games with concern to League of Legends. Given the fact that Honor of Kings is the most played MOBA mobile game in the world, the success of this plan will be huge and might set a precedent for other IPs to soon follow.
What are your thoughts on the parallels between these two giants of the gaming industry? Are you excited about the Honor of Kings IP expansion? Let us know in the comments below!
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