Tencent Faces Setbacks: After 9 Years, They Struggle to Develop This Game
The development of AAA games often takes several years, with titles like Black Myth: Wukong taking around 6 years to complete. Yet, there’s a game that has been in development for almost 9 years, only to end up being thrown into the “garbage bin.” Furthermore, this project has also seen substantial investment from Tencent, but it still failed to succeed.
The game in question is Uncharted Waters: Lord of the Sea. This title is being developed by Tianxi Interactive Entertainment, a subsidiary of Shengtian Network, which is the representative branch of Tencent Games. The game has just announced its suspension after 9 years of development since its initial launch.
Uncharted Waters: Lord of the Sea is a game derived from Koei Tecmo’s Uncharted Waters 4. In 2015, the game officially started its production process and was intended to be a traditional MMO title. In 2021, Tencent acquired the rights to this game; however, after several testing phases that reported disastrous results, Tencent decided to pull Uncharted Waters: Lord of the Sea from development at the end of 2023.
What Caused Tencent’s Frustration with Uncharted Waters: Lord of the Sea?
In fact, the Uncharted Waters brand has had a presence in the gaming market for a long time. The first version of this IP debuted in the 1990s, successfully tapping into historical, political, and economic themes to become one of the most captivating strategy games.
However, the gameplay of Uncharted Waters: Lord of the Sea has received very negative reviews from players during testing. Many users noted that the gameplay was too tedious, with comments like “just hanging around, selling stuff” reflecting the game’s lack of engagement. Additionally, some opinions suggested that the game was developed merely to cater to players’ “grinding” habits, as it heavily relied on pay-to-win mechanics and unreasonable upgrade systems.
It is likely that this will become one of the most forgotten projects in Tencent’s gaming history. Ultimately, developers often face challenges when a game has been in development for too long without receiving any recognition.
