Tencent Level Infinite's Highlight at the Tokyo Game Show: Calmly Developing for Globalization

At this year’s TGS (Tokyo Game Show), Tencent’s LI (Level Infinite) booth became one of the most crowded spots in the entire venue. Long lines formed on several sides of the booth, and every event on the main stage drew a large crowd of players sitting on the floor. Next to the Nioh 3 booth, NIKKE was still a head-turner—so packed between the two booths that you could barely move.

That might be thanks to NIKKE’s “live ten-pull” on site: when amber lights flashed, ten meticulously made-up cosplayers suddenly appeared. The appeal of “life-size figures” made many attendees stop in their tracks. In fact, NIKKE has done big stunts like this before. But compared with the past, this time they leveled up the format. At the TGS booth, players could step up and interact by touch with the cosplayers. In first-person videos circulating on social media, excited screams run from start to finish.

Because it was so popular, NIKKE stopped accepting people into the queue just ten minutes after opening.

On X, many players listed the experience as a must-do at TGS. Some even said it’s the reason they’ll come back next year.

It’s worth noting that NIKKE’s concurrent activities in Japan weren’t limited to Tokyo. Outside the Kanto region, the immersion extended to Kyoto as well.

On JR Central’s Shinkansen, players could hear eight characters’ different onboard announcements while holding commemorative cards styled like Shinkansen tickets—making it feel like the characters were truly traveling with you.

A gold, Rinpa-style folding screen and eight popular characters in kimono blended naturally with Kyoto’s already strong traditional atmosphere.

Across Kyoto, seven locations—including Shimogamo Shrine, the Manga Museum, and Shinsenen—were set up as check-in spots. Walking through the city, you’d look up to see subway pennants, then encounter character ads again when switching to buses… You could also feel the collaboration at the Kyoto International Manga & Anime Fair and Kyoto Station.

Swipe to see more Behind all these activations, I could clearly feel that as a publisher, Tencent LI became noticeably more “composed” this year.

Beyond NIKKE, Level Infinite also brought several titles to TGS this year, including Monster Hunter: Riders (lit. “Traveler”), Delta Force: Hawk Ops (Operation Delta), and Exoborne.

Compared with the past, LI’s booth concepts seemed better prepared. The titles they brought all had carefully designed spaces, most offered hands-on demos, and queues stretched to over an hour.

Swipe to see more And these titles didn’t just generate thunderous buzz—they delivered concrete results.

In June, Dune: Awakening launched worldwide, becoming Funcom’s fastest-selling title ever. In September, Dying Light: The Beast Within shot to the top of Steam’s global best-sellers, earning a 94% positive rating in its first hour on Steam. As their flagship for the Japanese market, NIKKE has now been steadily operating for three years—and recently returned to No. 1 on the grossing charts…

The array of products at TGS reflects LI’s traction across different markets and genres. In an article yesterday (September 27) the Nikkei also highlighted Tencent and LI. In it, LI’s publishing head for Japan and Korea, Kawai, said, “It’s our third year—we came together with development partners from all over the world.”

Last year when we saw LI at TGS, we felt they had finally “made landfall” in Japan after years of effort. This year, LI not only has a seat at the table and plays a strong hand—it’s also become something of a “dealer” in the industry: its insights and methods are being adopted by more peers, and some industry standards and player expectations are gradually being shaped by LI.

In the space of just a year, LI has stepped into its own “third stage.”

01 From ACG to extraction shooters

To explain LI’s evolution, we should first look at the products they brought to TGS this year.

Let’s start with their flagship NIKKE, which recently climbed back to the top of the Japanese grossing chart.

A game still making this much noise on the global stage after three years of operation is inseparable from LI’s publishing—the game has accumulated not only users but growing brand power.

Beyond the Kyoto collaboration mentioned above, NIKKE’s localization approach has extended to Korea and North America as well: in Korea, its tie-in with GS25 convenience stores saw rice balls and boxed meals sell over 3.5 million units, becoming a truly national-level collaboration; in North America, the game broke out simultaneously through MLB Padres games and Anime Expo—bridging mainstream sports and subculture.

Beyond NIKKE, another highly watched title is Monster Hunter: Riders (Tencent and Capcom’s latest collaboration). Back in November 2022, the two sides announced the project: TiMi would handle development, operations, and publishing, while Capcom would provide support on gameplay, art, and audio.

At the opening-day stage event at TGS, TiMi producer Huang Dong appeared alongside Capcom producer Sunano Genki. Bringing that “Monster Hunter feel” back to its home turf in Japan caught the attention of many local players.

After the first gameplay reveal at the show, many players were eager to try it. On the second day open to the public, the Monster Hunter: Riders booth filled its queue just 20 minutes after opening, with wait times up to 150 minutes.

At yesterday’s (September 27) stage event, top Japanese cosplayer Enako was invited, drawing a massive crowd. The area around the stage was jam-packed, with players surrounding the booth.

In terms of gameplay, Riders has been adapted and optimized for mobile: it preserves the series’ action core while shifting to a lighter combat tempo.

For example, skill strings that once required continuous inputs have been condensed into easier-to-trigger button combinations—while still keeping enough depth for mastery.

Combat info is also more intuitive. With the new part-lock feature, players can focus fire on the part they want to break.

As for weapons, the game offers Long Sword, Great Sword, Dual Blades, Bow, and Heavy Bowgun. Great Sword’s charged slash and Long Sword’s Iai-style combos help veterans quickly pick up the familiar battle rhythm.

The appearance of Path of Exile 2 initially seemed surprising—but on reflection, it makes perfect sense.

Approaching the PoE2 booth, you’re immediately drawn to a giant real-time leaderboard showing players who killed the most bosses within a set time.

The demo was GGG’s “BOSS RUSH”: players choose one of seven preset class templates and dive into consecutive boss fights—first a few waves of monsters, then a boss. Each successful boss kill lights up a new portal to the next fight. There are 15 bosses in total, with rising difficulty and pace.

For a hardcore title like PoE2 to gain a foothold in Asian markets, translation and servers alone aren’t enough—you need to let players directly feel the fun and challenge.

This booth event condensed the long, complex progression into a 20-minute boss gauntlet, turning hardcore challenge into a spectacle. Some in the queue had never touched the game before, but jumped in as soon as they saw the leaderboard.

In addition to those collaborations and published titles, LI also brought the fully first-party, self-developed Delta Force: Hawk Ops.

The stage invited the ACL Japan team’s commander and popular Delta Force creators to try the new season’s fixed-wing content, “Blaze to the Skies.”

It’s understandable: outside China, extraction shooters aren’t as popular, while large-scale modes make it easier for overseas players to get in and feel the tension of the gameplay.

To celebrate the anniversary, over the four days of the show—both on-site and online—more than 60 Delta Forcestreamers participated, with influencer matches and giveaways so Japanese players who couldn’t attend TGS could still share the festivities.

Delta Force: Hawk Ops has also been heavily optimized for consoles—120 FPS, controller feel, UI/UX, and more—to suit console players’ habits.

Producer Shadow has said that tests showed a large console player base in Japan and other overseas markets, and many don’t play on PC. In every version’s community, users frequently express their preferences and feedback. Each update responding to those needs is crucial for the global strategy.

By the way, LI’s extraction shooter lineup at TGS wasn’t just Hawk Ops: Sharkmob’s new Exoborne also opened public demos for the first time at TGS. It’s a tactical, open-world extraction shooter.

Players can gain an edge by modifying powerful exoskeletons, fighting not only rival factions but also extreme, dynamic weather. With customizable exosuits and emergent extreme weather, Exoborne offers a differentiated extraction experience.

A giant exoskeleton installation stood at the booth entrance.

From these TGS snapshots, you can see LI’s overseas strategy has upgraded: their key products all stress localized adaptation, whether mobile, console, or cross-platform, aligning closely with local player habits.

At the same time, product teams place great importance on player feedback—community input and on-site demo data feed into iteration and optimization. LI also emphasizes the combination of online and offline events, creating social talking points and boosting brand awareness.

These three points show LI is not only bringing games to overseas markets—it’s building a sustainable, repeatable model for global operations.

02 The third stage of globalization

Back to the opening question—why do these changes mean LI has entered a third stage? We need to look at LI’s history.

In the first stage after its founding, LI focused on resource integration and breakout-hit validation.

Before 2021, Tencent’s image in the global games market was more that of a successful investor and financial partner than a seasoned player in global publishing. LI’s creation and early strategy were intended to change that perception.

So the core playbook in that phase was clear: combine Tencent’s advantages in capital, technology (engines, anti-cheat, servers), and IP partnerships with sharp product selection for global markets to build flagship titles with global impact.

PUBG MOBILE was the best case in point. LI successfully pushed it overseas and, through top-tier IP collaborations, ongoing esports, and content updates, kept it near the top of global mobile revenue charts—the game proved that Tencent’s methodology for evergreen, gameplay-driven titles could succeed abroad as well.

Following that, NIKKE upended the stereotype, proving Tencent could also publish content-driven products. LI provided marketing support and operational thinking that helped NIKKE succeed in major markets like Japan and Korea, even as the ACG genre’s growth was slowing—dispelling the “Tencent doesn’t get ACG” myth to a degree. In those years, LI had the air of a “new entrant”—its approach was direct and efficient: invest substantial resources into products already partly validated by the market (like NIKKE’s art) to quickly cement a position in global publishing.

The primary goal of that stage was also clear: rack up tangible wins so the global industry and players could viscerally feel the scale and energy Tencent Publishing could bring.

In LI’s second stage, the focus shifted to building systematic capabilities.

After proving its value with hits, the new question became: how to “succeed sustainably.” The team began to build a global publishing platform, distilling reusable methodologies; coordinating across regions and platforms; driving efficiency with tech and AI; and strengthening data systems and security infrastructure—turning publishing into a repeatable production line.

These systematic capabilities came into sharp relief as LI cultivated the Japanese market. Through case after case, they figured out what kind of product needs what publishing tactics and resources, how to boost exposure on Japanese social platforms, how to work with local KOLs, what operations resonate with Japanese players, and how to allocate limited local budgets… The on-site performance at TGS is a report card for that mature approach.

The ultimate validation of systematic capabilities is a longer product lifecycle and repeatable success: NIKKE returning to the top of the Japanese grossing chart after three years demonstrates this. In an interview with Japanese outlet 4Gamer, NIKKE producer Yoo Hyung-suk said: “Tencent is a company with a broad global footprint. They have extensive industry resources. Tencent recommends professional partners to us—and sometimes gives direct introductions. NIKKE has developed smoothly thanks to this comprehensive support.”

This also reflects that LI now offers not just resources, but a long-term cooperation mechanism that grows with products.

But if you look at LI today, you’ll notice its playbook has changed again.

The thinking is no longer confined to one or two hits; it’s about “turning away games into home games,” becoming a partner global developers can rely on—providing a higher-certainty path while creating new content with LI’s brand imprint for players. In other words, LI has started “dealing the cards.”

That may sound abstract, but two signs in the market back it up.

First: much of the know-how LI has worked out is now widely accepted—even followed—by the industry.

The earliest visible shift was cross-platform and PC-first strategies. What may have started as LI’s attempts to broaden audiences in different markets has now become the default for most publishers.

Next, player co-creation and ongoing operations were pushed to the forefront. What used to be optional community activities is now codified into product plans—key considerations from the earliest stages of development.

As games scale up, the value of security infrastructure and anti-cheat becomes obvious. LI’s investments here are now viewed by many followers as must-haves.

Further on, the concepts of “evergreen” and “games-as-a-service” have tangibly influenced publishing logic: whether a game can accompany players for the long term has become a core criterion for investment.

Put simply, LI may be providing partners—and even the whole industry—with a foundational logic. This paradigm lowers developers’ trial-and-error costs and offers a playbook for success.

Second: LI is no longer confined to passively adapting to market preferences. It’s seizing the initiative—based on its understanding of local markets—to proactively plan content that balances local flavor with global appeal, opening up new growth.

For example, NIKKE uses flexible tactics across markets. Its collaboration with the Resident Evil series departs from traditional ACG norms, aiming to satisfy players with different tastes.

Similarly, Exoborne doesn’t simply reuse the “extraction shooter” template. It deepens the genre: dynamic weather in an open-world structure and highly customizable exosuits add unpredictability and variety, making players realize “Oh, extraction shooters can play like this.”

In on-site conversations with the dev team, they said LI already has deep experience in Asian markets, and Exobornediffers from traditional extraction shooters by emphasizing “run-and-gun” gameplay, fast-paced firefights, and diverse strategic depth. They therefore believe the game has strong potential in East Asia, including Japan.

In this process, LI isn’t just making the “right” products. It’s starting to influence industry standards and player perceptions—trying to gain more say at the global table through global operations and content dissemination.

03 Conclusion

Looking back, LI in its third stage exudes a calmer confidence.

Last year, we were still surprised by its breakthroughs in Japan—piercing the ACG market and exploring PC publishing. This year, executing the same strategies seems to come with fewer hurdles.

On the global stage, it no longer feels like LI is here to challenge a specific rival or crack a single genre (like ACG). Instead, it arrives with a globalized system and resources, taking a more proactive, open stance to explore possibilities in different markets.

Practically speaking, Tencent’s Q2 financials show international game revenue grew 35%, the fastest since that line item was separately disclosed. Rising PUBG MOBILE revenue and new titles like Dune: Awakening contributed most. In China’s increasingly competitive environment, LI has won more “win-win” opportunities, moving further away from zero-sum awkwardness.

On the softer side, LI can now create memes that break out culturally (e.g., NIKKE’s “DORO”), further popularize long-term GaaS operations, and at a strategic level, turn its methodologies (evergreen, GaaS, cross-platform) into industry consensus. If that continues, players worldwide will get richer, more differentiated content experiences.

Seen this way, LI’s composure may well become a new starting point for global, multi-party wins.

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