It may carve a big niche on the system.
Look, there’s like ninety bajillion MOBAs on the market right now. That said, most of those are for PC or mobile. In the case of Tencent’s Honor of Kings (a.k.a. Arena of Valor as it will be called in the west), it would be the latter. But they’ve decided to expand onto the Nintendo Switch with the game, which may work out in their favor.
Most MOBAs don’t have a console version, focusing on their initial platform, as well as those that are most compatible. But most Mobile MOBAs are fairly simple by comparison to their PC brethren, due to touchscreen controls. And the Switch is, currently, a very popular console, easily capable of accommodating Arena of Valor. Doubly so, considering that the game is simple enough for pretty much anyone to pick up.
Granted, most westerners know little of the Chinese Mythos the original version of the game is based in. At best, you’ll find people familiar with something like the Monkey King, several characters used in the Romance of the Three Kingdoms-based Dynasty Warriors games, and little else. So, they plan to replace some of the more obscure mythological characters in the West. So, thanks to a deal with DC, some of those characters will be replaced with the likes of Batman or Wonder Woman.
If they’re successful on the Switch, they will have earned a legit commendation. Even some of the best mobile games have utterly failed to breach the core audience in the west. While Arena of Valor is currently out on smartphones, the Switch version could open the floodgates, so to speak. Arena of Valor should launch sometime in the coming months on the Switch eShop.
Source: NPR
About Author
