TheGamingEconomy Daily Digest brings you the trending business stories in gaming. In today’s edition: Tencent integrates live-streaming e-commerce functions in WeChat, Scopely expands into APAC, and PlayStation 4 sells thirty million units in the US.

Tencent integrates live-streaming e-commerce functions in WeChat

Chinese internet giant Tencent has integrated live streaming functions into its WeChat platform, which has been designed to facilitate e-commerce capabilities, according Weixin (translation provided by KrASIA). The functions on the platform, which has 1.1 billion monthly active users will be embedded via an H5 page on the seller’s ‘mini program platform’.

Selling products via live streams have already proven lucrative for Tencent’s competitors, namely Alibaba’s Taobao, JD.com, and ByteDance’s Douyin. Kuaishou, a third-party platform which is backed by Tencent, reportedly sold CN¥100m (£11.4m) worth of goods in a three day period, during a promotional period dubbed ‘Kaopu Haohuojie’ (Trustworthy Goods Festival).

Scopely expands into APAC

Los Angeles-based mobile developer Scopely, which has grossed more than USD$1bn (£803m) so far in 2019, is expanding into the Asia Pacific region. The firm will have a presence in Japan, and has hired former Disney Asia Games division executive Justin Scarpone to lead the expansion efforts.

Scopely’s most successful title of recent times has been the free-to-play MMO title Star Trek Fleet Command, which has generated over USD$100m (£80.3m) since its launch in November 2018. The success of the title led Scopely to acquire Dublin-based Digit Games, which partnered in developing the game, in May this year.

Speaking on the expansion in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Scopely chief revenue officer Tim O’Brien said, “Asia is home to three out of the four top-grossing gaming markets and we are excited by the endless possibilities ahead. I could not think of anyone better suited than Justin to take Scopely on this next phase of our journey.”

PlayStation 4 sells thirty million units in the US

Sony has sold more than 30 million units of its PlayStation 4 console in the United States since its launch in November 2018, according to figures from Daniel Ahmad, senior analyst at Niko Partners. This represents a proportion of approximately 30% of total sales, which is significantly higher than other leading markets, such as Japan (8.3%), Germany (7.2%) and the UK (6.8%).

While Microsoft does not release sales figures for its rival Xbox One console, it is believed to have sold less units than the PS4. When comparable figures were last provided in January, also by Ahmad, approximately 41 million Xbox One units had been sold worldwide, in comparison to 98 million PlayStation 4 consoles.