2008–2013: Origins as Jade Studio TiMi began in 2008 as Jade Studio in
Shenzhen, China. The studio debuted into the Chinese PC gaming market with
QQ Speed (known as
GKART and
Speed Drifters in Western markets), China's most successful racing game. As of July 2, 2019,
Speed Drifters has 700 million registered users, with 200 million registered as mobile players. Following Speed Drifters, the studio released its own massive multiplayer online
RPG (MMORPG) titled
The Legend of Dragon in 2010 and first-person shooter (FPS)
Assault Fire in 2012. In 2013, the studio released their final PC game which is a third-person shooter (TPS) titled
Age of Gunslingers before they made their debut into mobile gaming with the release of
WeChat exclusive games such as
We Match and
We Run. 2014–2016: Formation of TiMi Studio Group and Chinese success In 2014, Jade Studio merged with Wolong Studio from Chengdu and Tianmeiyiyou Studio from Shanghai to form TiMi Studio Group. Following the merge, in 2015, the group's development division TiMi-L1 debuted into mobile gaming with the massive
Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) game,
Honor of Kings. As of July 2019,
Honor of Kings is the most profitable mobile game globally of the first half of 2019, earning more than $728 million. In 2016, the division introduced the King Pro League (KPL); an official competitive
esport for
Honor of Kings. The KPL marked the division' and studio group' first entry into esports.
2016–2020: Worldwide growth, Arena of Valor, Call of Duty: Mobile and Pokémon UNITE Following the success of
Honor of Kings, in 2016, the group's development division TiMi-J6 released
Arena of Valor. The MOBA game was launched for mobile and
Nintendo Switch in over 50 countries across Asia, Europe, North America and South America, expanding the group's reach worldwide, with more than 13 million monthly active users reported in May 2019. The game became a part of the esports demonstration event at the
2018 Asian Games, 2019 Southeast Asian Games and 2022 Asian Games. On March 19, 2019, at the
Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco, California, Activision announced that they were partnering with TiMi Studio Group to develop their upcoming title,
Call of Duty: Mobile. The game was developed by the TiMi-J3 division and released worldwide on October 1, 2019. As of October 4, 2019, the game has surpassed 35 million downloads and over $2 million in revenue. In December 2019, the game received an award for Best Mobile Game at
The Game Awards. In June 2020, it was announced that the studio group and The Pokémon Company are developing a new Pokémon game, which was revealed on July 21, 2021, called Pokémon UNITE, a Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) game for mobile and Nintendo Switch.
2020–2025: Team Kaiju, Code: J, Delta Force In May 2020, the studio group announced ex-
343 Industries and
Ubisoft developer Scott Warner as Studio Head in North America. Scott Warner will lead TiMi's
Team Kaiju (stylized as
TEAM KAIJU), which was revealed on 15 October 2021. The subsidiary is working on one unnamed
first-person-shooter (FPS) game for the
PC and
console market. On June 27, 2020, the studio group and
SNK announced a new unnamed mobile game,
Code: J, for the classic arcade franchise
Metal Slug. In November 2020, the studio group announced that
Honor of Kings set a record of 100 million average daily active users worldwide. In July 2021, the group established a new division located in
Canada, Montréal. The division's
classification is TiMi-F1 and the development focus is an
AAA open-world game. In May 2021, the studio group announced a strategic partnership with Xbox Game Studios. In June 2022, TiMi L1 Studio, a development division of the group, announced a strategic partnership with
Level Infinite on publishing
Honor of Kings world-wide, where Level Infinite will take over the publishing, eSports, but TiMi the operations and community. The five versus five video game in the multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) genre will adapt on areas where TiMi L1 Studio's Arena of Valor have a shared eSports with in Honor of Kings World Championship (KCC), under TiMi eSports, but did not reach the expected player base.
Honor of Kings was launched worldwide on June 20, 2024, following pre-releases in
Brazil and
Turkey as well as countries in the
Middle East,
North Africa, and the
Commonwealth of Independent States.
Delta Force, a free-to-play first-person tactical shooter video game, was released for Windows, iOS, Android, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S in 2025.
2025-present: Designation as a "Chinese military company" by the US In January 2025, TiMi Studio Group's parent
Tencent was labelled as a Chinese military company by the
United States Department of Defense. After five years without releasing a game, TiMi Montreal was shut down in February 2026. == List of games ==