Alibaba studio pulls top game from Vivo’s app store after similar move by Tencent

The move comes amid ongoing disputes between Chinese video game companies and smartphone brands over app-store commission rates

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An Alibaba studio is removing its top game, Three Kingdoms Tactics, from Vivo’s Android app store. Photo: Handout

Ann Caoin Shanghai

Published: 8:00pm, 10 Jan 2025

Alibaba Group Holding’s video gaming unit will withdraw its flagship mobile title from the app store of smartphone maker Vivo, months after Tencent Holdings pulled its mobile game from several Android app stores.

The cooperation between strategy game Three Kingdoms Tactics and the Vivo app store had ended, Alibaba’s Lingxi Games said in a statement published earlier this week, without elaborating on the reason. The game will be removed on March 7, and users will no longer be able to log into the game through Vivo’s app store, according to the notice.

The Guangzhou-based studio apologised to players for the inconvenience. Users can apply for refund of unused game credits, the company said.

Vivo declined to comment on Friday. Lingxi, which was acquired by Alibaba in 2017, referred the South China Morning Post to its earlier statement. Alibaba owns the Post.

A Vivo store in Shenzhen, China’s southern Guangdong province. Photo: Roy Issa

Launched in 2019, Three Kingdoms Tactics has been a commercial success, raking in more than US$1 billion in the first two years of release. It was the eighth-highest-grossing mobile game in Apple’s China App Store last November, helping Lingxi secure the fifth spot among Chinese mobile game companies ranked by global revenue, according to data from analytics firm Sensor Tower.