Overview
TiMi Studio Group is a Chinese video game development studio and a subsidiary of Tencent Games. The studio is responsible for developing Honor of Kings: World, alongside a portfolio that includes some of the highest-grossing mobile games ever released. TiMi generated an estimated US$10 billion in revenue in 2020, making it one of the largest game developers in the world by that metric.
History
TiMi began in 2008 as Jade Studio, based in Shenzhen, China. Jade Studio released QQ Speed (known internationally as Speed Drifters), which became China's most successful racing game. The studio followed up with the MMORPG The Legend of Dragon in 2010 and the FPS Assault Fire in 2012.
In 2014, Jade Studio merged with Wolong Studio (Chengdu) and Tianmeiyiyou Studio (Shanghai) to form TiMi Studio Group under the Tencent umbrella. The consolidation brought together teams across multiple cities with different specializations, creating the foundation for the multi-division structure TiMi uses today.
The studio's breakthrough came in 2015 with Honor of Kings, a mobile MOBA that became the most-played mobile game in the world. Honor of Kings generated over $728 million in the first half of 2019 alone. That success funded TiMi's expansion into global markets and AAA-scale projects, including Honor of Kings: World.
Studio divisions
Division | Description |
|---|---|
TiMi-L1 | developed Honor of Kings (2015) and is the team behind Honor of Kings: World. |
TiMi-J6 | developed Arena of Valor (2016), the international version of Honor of Kings, released in over 50 countries. |
TiMi-J3 | developed Call of Duty: Mobile (2019) in partnership with Activision. |
TiMi-J1 | is responsible for Pokemon Unite, Metal Slug: Awakening, GKART, and Contra Returns. |
TiMi-F1 | is the Montreal studio, established in July 2021. Focused on AAA open-world game development. |
Team Kaiju | is led by Scott Warner (ex-343 Industries, ex-Ubisoft) and focused on an unannounced AAA project. |
Key leadership
Person | Role |
|---|---|
Colin Yao | is the President of TiMi Studio Group. Fortune profiled him in 2019 for his role directing Tencent's in-house game development strategy. |
Vincent Gao | heads Global Game Development. |
Leo Yao | is the General Manager, overseeing the teams behind Call of Duty Mobile and Delta Force. |
Scott Warner | was appointed Studio Head for North America in May 2020, bringing experience from 343 Industries and Ubisoft. |
Simen Lv | is the Lead Designer on Honor of Kings: World specifically. He represented the project at GDC 2025 and in multiple developer interviews. |
Office locations
TiMi operates offices in Shenzhen (headquarters), Chengdu, Shanghai, Montreal, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Singapore. The global footprint allows the studio to recruit internationally and maintain operations across time zones.
Notable games
Game | Details |
|---|---|
Honor of Kings | (2015) is the world's most-played mobile MOBA and one of the highest-grossing mobile games of all time. |
Arena of Valor | (2016) brought the Honor of Kings formula to international markets, including a Nintendo Switch version. |
Call of Duty: Mobile | (2019) was developed with Activision and launched worldwide on October 1, 2019. |
Pokemon Unite | (2021) was co-developed with The Pokemon Company as a MOBA for mobile and Nintendo Switch. |
Delta Force | (2024-2025) is a free-to-play tactical FPS that reached #1 downloads in 169 regions after its global launch. |
Honor of Kings: World
Honor of Kings: World is developed by TiMi-L1 under Lead Designer Simen Lv. The project is TiMi's largest single development effort to date, building on the Honor of Kings IP to create an open-world action RPG using Unreal Engine 5. The game is published by Level Infinite, Tencent's global publishing brand. For full game details, see the overview.