UPDATE: Huawei has added Tencent’s games back to its app store after the two technologies companies negotiated an agreement.
“We will continue to work together to bring better experience and service to Tencent game community,” a spokesperson for Tencent said.
Huawei has removed Tencent’s games from Huawei’s app store after both companies failed to reach an agreement, according to both parties’ statements on Friday.
Huawei’s action was taken after Tencent made a “big change” on December 31 to how the companies work with each other, according to an official announcement posted on Huawei’s gaming application, while no details of the change were elaborated.
The games were removed because the companies could not agree on a revenue sharing deal for the app store sales, with Huawei insisting on receiving a 50-percent cut.
Huawei said its decision followed an assessment by its legal team and was based on the premise that Tencent is unilaterally asking to halt cooperation.
“Due to the failure of Huawei’s mobile game platform to renew its contract with our Mobile Game Promotion Project Agreement as scheduled, relevant products of Tencent Games were suddenly removed from the shelves early this morning,” Tencent said in a statement.
“At present, active communication is being made to try to resume as soon as possible,”
Although Tencent sells some of the top-ranked online games worldwide, its partnership with Huawei is an important one as it leverages the hundreds of millions of Huawei phones that is in circulation in China, Tencent’s biggest market.
A number of game developers have opposed Huawei’s revenue demands, including Shanghai-based Mihoyo, which last year decided not to place its hit game “Genshin Impact” on Huawei’s app store because of the sales commission structure.
