League of Legends WeGame streaming has finally arrived. Tencent has launched a WeGame streaming app that, for the moment, only allows players to stream League of Legends (and consequently, TeamFight Tactics) from their PC to their mobile device—but more games will be coming in the future.
First, a bit of background: WeGame is Tencent’s homegrown version of a digital distribution service akin to Steam. It distributes both premium and free-to-play games around the world, and it reportedly boasts 300 million registered users and 70 million active users. For all intents and purposes, it’s China’s version of Steam.
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Tencent also happen to be the folks behind League of Legends, and the fact that it’s the first game to debut on this app should not come as a surprise to anyone. The League of Legends WeGame streaming was shown working out pretty well in a video posted by industry analyst Daniel Ahmad on Twitter.
WeGame is Tencent's PC game distribution platform for China (Think of Steam). It has over 300 million registered users and 70 million monthly active users in China alone.
Distributes both F2P and B2P games.
Here is a video of the app in action. pic.twitter.com/J18HIMh6oz
— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) July 13, 2019
Of course, the app will only work when you’re on the same WiFi network as the PC hosting the games. Other games are surely coming in the future, but League of Legends and TeamFight Tactics are the only available experiences for the moment.
While the debut of League of Legends on WeGame streaming is certainly a welcome surprise, the true test of such an app is what other games are going to be running on the platform. That’s going to require a lot of initial work plus maintenance after the fact.
There’s also the concern of audiences outside of China. WeGame is certainly popular enough in its home country, but Tencent is just getting the service off of the ground for the global audience. If it wants to have the same success as Steam, Tencent is going to have to get this working fast (and, more importantly, get it working right) sooner rather than later, lest it gets left in the dust by Valve and other companies.
