Tencent Games has created many popular video games but their fans will always remember Undawn for being a complete disaster. The game was endorsed by actor Will Smith, who also appears in the game, and had a gigantic budget. All this came crashing down as the game failed to attract the audience, making it one of the biggest financial failures for the company.
Undawn was the first game to fail under Tencent Games’ “in-house” production plan, which was going to help the studios make profits of their own. The development and marketing of the game cost the studios around 1 billion yuan (roughly $140 million), which is $40 million more than Christopher Nolan’s 2023 blockbuster hit, Oppenheimer.
Will Smith’s Undawn was a major flop
If you have not heard about Tencent Games’ Undawn, we don’t blame you. The zombie apocalypse shooting game was an unoriginal idea that failed to please the audience, making it one of the biggest financial mistakes in Tencent Games’ history. Even actor Will Smith couldn’t save the game from being a major flop as the actor was hired to endorse the game.
As per Reuters, the game’s budget, which included development and marketing cost, was roughly 1 billion yuan, which is around $140 million. To put things into perspective, Collider stated that Christopher Nolan’s 2023 movie Oppenheimer had a budget of $100 million, making the game more expensive than the Oscar-winning movie. Not just that, a team of 300 developers was formed to create the game, which eventually turned out to be a disaster.
Undawn only made $287,000 last month
A source has revealed to Reuters that Undawn only managed to bring in $287,000 for Tencent Games last month. Undawn was released on Android, iOS, and Microsoft Windows on 15 June 2023 and since then, the game’s revenue has proved that Undawn was a major gamble that was under Tencent Games’ “in-house” production plan.
Under this plan, Tencent focuses on creating games within their organization so their profits are all their own and not shared. Setbacks like Undawn can be partially blamed for the delay of Tencent Games’ highly anticipated game, Assassin’s Creed: Jade, as they are focusing more on casual party games and Genshin Impact. Assassin’s Creed: Jade was originally slated for a late 2023 release but it has been now pushed back. Nonetheless, Undawn’s failure doesn’t slow down Tencent as they are known for creating many popular profitable video games like PUBG Mobile.
