TikTok is launching a dedicated gaming channel

By Cristina Alexander October 27, 2022

TikTok is moving further into the games industry by launching its own dedicated gaming channel.

According to a report from Financial Times, the channel will allow TikTok users to access games by pressing a tab on the ByteDance-owned social media platform’s homepage. Four people familiar with the matter said that the channel will feature a variety of mobile games — some of which the company already developed — with ads and additional content that users can purchase.

Overnight @ft scoop – @tiktok is launching a dedicated channel for gaming — headed by Assaf Sagy who says: “TikTok and gaming were made for each other”

With @CristinaCriddle @Techmeme

TikTok to launch standalone gaming channel https://t.co/WjgKFZ0lDB pic.twitter.com/FFb8q0lUFa

— Patrick McGee (@PatrickMcGee_) October 27, 2022

The gaming channel will be led by Assaf Sagy, whom TikTok appointed as the new Global Head of Gaming two weeks ago. “TikTok and Gaming were made for each other,” Sagy said in a LinkedIn post at the time. “For more than a decade, the Gaming industry has been growing faster than any other to become one of the world’s most common forms of entertainment. With three billion active players, publishers are now launching games with the intention of creating mega brands and appealing to the masses. TikTok has far shown its value in helping consumers discover what’s fun, valuable, and popular. I look forward to working closely with all Gaming companies globally to help make TikTok a central foundation in your marketing strategies.”

It’s currently unknown when the new channel will be added to TikTok. However, it is likely it will be announced during TikTok Made Me Play It, the company’s first gaming livestream event, on November 2. The stream will feature speakers from various gaming companies, including EA, 2K, NetEase Games, VNG Games, and Homa.

TikTok’s plans to launch a gaming channel come five months after it began investing in games, testing them on young audiences in Vietnam, and placing minigames within the app in an effort to keep users engaged with the platform. It also comes after ByteDance laid off hundreds of game developers at two game studios last month, making their jobs redundant or transferring them internally to other departments.

Topics

Cristina Alexander

Gaming/Mobile Writer

Cristina Alexander has been writing since 2014, from opining about pop culture on her personal blog in college to reporting…

Gaming

Two games will launch as part of PS Plus Game Catalog in August

Zale and Valere from Sea of Stars

Sony highlighted the various games coming and leaving PlayStation Plus Premium and Extra's Game Catalog as part of its August update. While this month's lineup is much more muted than the busy June and July updates, it notably features two games coming to Sony's subscription the day they release.

Historically, Sony has done fewer day-one releases on its subscription services than Microsoft, but that's clearly starting to change with this month's lineup. Moving Out 2, a wacky co-op game about moving furniture, launches as part of the PS Plus Catalog on August 15, the day most of the month's new titles are added. Then, on August 29, Sabotage Studios' highly anticipated indie RPG Sea of Stars will be available with PS Plus Extra and Premium from day one as well.
While they are both indie games, the fact that there is more than one day one launch into the PS Plus Catalog this August suggests that it will become a much more common occurrence. Other than that, August's catalog additions aren't too exciting outside the likes of Destiny 2: The Witch King and Lost Judgment. Unless they are denoted otherwise, the following games will come to the PS Plus Game Catalog on August 15:

Gaming

Hello Kitty: Island Adventure should be your next mobile game obsession

Sanrio characters hang out on a beach in Hello Kitty: Island Adventure.

I challenge you to find a video game with a better elevator pitch than Hello Kitty: Island Adventure. Get this: It’s Animal Crossing but with Sanrio characters. You don’t need to see a single screenshot or watch a trailer to know if you’re in or out on that idea.

Apple Arcade’s latest exclusive is the gaming platform’s best hope for a subscription mover yet. It’s an undeniably adorable adventure built to deliver on Apple’s promise of high-quality mobile gaming with no pesky ads or microtransactions -- and for the most part, it delivers. Though it lacks key hooks that make the Animal Crossing formula work, Hello Kitty: Island Adventure makes up for some of its shortcomings with an infectiously positive attitude and a downright pleasant visual style that I can’t help but soak in. It’s a summer getaway in your pocket.
Island time
It’s immediately clear what developer Sunblink is aiming to do upon firing up the adventure. After a cute introduction where Hello Kitty almost gets an entire airplane of cute animals killed (yes, really), players parachute onto an island alongside Sanrio staples like My Melody and Keroppi. Within moments of exploring that first hub area -- complete with a furniture shop, clothing store, and a town hall where you can check your “island vibe” score -- it’s pretty clear that Animal Crossing was a direct inspiration here. Even its crafting animation looks identical to the one in New Horizons.

Gaming

The best free-to-play mobile games

Marvel Snap running on the OnePlus Nord N30 5G.

The realm of mobile gaming has come a long way since the days when you were lucky if you could play a game of Snake on your brick of a phone. Today, we all have essentially a modern console in our pockets with games that look and play just as good as what is offered on current consoles. Unlike the console or PC space, mobile games have mostly stuck to either being extremely cheap or simply free-to-play. While that sounds great on the surface, it also means that the storefronts are filled with thousands of games looking for your attention, with only a select few worthy of your time. If you're looking for your next mobile go-to with no upfront cost, here are the best free-to-play mobile games you may never delete from your home screen.

Honkai: Star Rail