New Delhi: Chinese Internet firm Tencent has rolled out its gaming service on its messaging app WeChat, an important step in making it more like a social platform and not just a chat app.
The new service currently offers four games – Gunz DAsh, 2Days' Match, Craz3 Match and Pencil Pilot – all of which can be discovered via WeChat accounts. The games are free to download but involve in-app purchases as well. The Game Center is located under the ‘Discover' tab in the messaging service. Clicking on the ‘download' button for each specific game listed in WeChat takes you to the App Store where you have to download it separately.
These games can either be played in solo or with your WeChat friends and compare your scores with theirs. These games come enabled with location-based service, which allows users to interact and share score with their contacts in the vicinity.
The company also announced its tie-up with AskMe search service to offer location-based local searches through an AskMe search powered account on the WeChat service. This includes deals of the day, restaurants as well as feature real-time classified feeds to give it an m-commerce angle.
In addition, these games come enabled with location-based service, to let users interact and share score with their contacts in the vicinity.
WeChat has more than 270 million active users worldwide, and getting them engaged in games could help the company monetize via avenues such as in-app game purchases.
