Report: PUBG Mobile's global developer Tencent Games restored on Huawei App Store after brief delisting

Chinese giant Tencent Games' offerings have been restored to the Huawei App Store after a brief removal, following a revenue-sharing dispute between the two companies.

The two companies later reached an agreement over the dispute. An official spokesperson for Tencent, speaking to Bloomberg News, said:

“We will continue to work together to bring better experience and service to the Tencent game community,”

Earlier, on 31st December 2020, all the offerings of Tencent Games were removed from the Huawei App Store, after the former made a "big change" on how the two companies would work going forward.

Tencent back on Huawei Store, but for how long?

According to a source of the Financial Post, the dispute was over the revenue sharing between the two companies. It was claimed that Huawei insisted on receiving 50% of the total revenue generated.

Earlier too, there was some resistance from other game developers to Huawei’s high revenue demands. Among the top of the list was the Chinese game developer Mihoyo, whose title "Genshin Impact," was not placed on the Huawei App Store last year.

According to Financial Times, Genshin Impact was not placed on the Huawei App store because it did not agree with the commission structure for sales.

Huawei has started adding Tencent's games back to its app store, signalling an end to the dispute which started earlier today. Huawei, one of the top android app stores in China, charges a 50% take rate on all IAP. Tencent had been trying to negotiate to lower this. https://t.co/6QED4Ba4pY pic.twitter.com/QJr7CKq4mR

— Daniel Ahmad (@ZhugeEX) January 1, 2021

The high revenue demands come on the back of Huawei's hold on the Chinese smartphone market. As the company is the largest smartphone manufacturer in China, it follows a 50% fee on IAP compared to the standard 30%.

According to Daniel Ahmad, a senior analyst at Niko Partners, Tencent has been looking to negotiate a higher share for itself on third-party Android stores, using its leverage as China’s largest games company.

It has been pushing for changes this past year as third party stores have declined in importance and direct distribution has grown.

With these turn of events, it would be interesting to see how things between the two companies unfold in the upcoming years.