Chinese FPS Assault Fire to assault US, European, and Asian markets in 2014

Tencent’s freemium MMO FPS Assault Fire (逆战) has made a big enough splash in China that it was chosen as one of the featured games at this year’s WCG finals in Kunshan. Now, Assault Fire producer “Floppy” has told Chinese gaming site 17173 that the game will be entering some new markets in 2014:

Right now, Assault Fire is already officially operating in China, the Philippines, Brazil, Argentina, Peru, Columbia, Chile, and Mexico. In 2014, we will also begin setting up servers and operating the game in some North American, European, and Central Asian markets.

Needless to say, these are challenging markets, and shooters in particular have a lot of top-flight competition to deal with if they want to attract a large player base. When asked about this, Floppy said that Tencent has expert teams working on localizing the games, but that ultimately “as long as they’re gamers, they’re not going to refuse more playable and creative specialized ways of playing.”

That’s the sort of sentence that ought to make Assault Fire fans nervous, because it’s going to take more than just “new ways of playing” (whatever that means) to get the attention of Western FPS fans, especially in a year that will see the release of much-anticipated FPS games Destiny and Titanfall.

That said, Assault Fire has proven it holds at least a little appeal outside China’s borders. At the recent WCG Finals in Kunshan, the Assault Fire competition was admittedly dominated by Chinese players, but a Brazilian team ultimately took home the bronze medal. And there was also a team from the Philippines in the mix, though it ultimately did not medal.

If Tencent can get gamers in those countries interested enough to start playing at a competitive level, perhaps Assault Fire will make a big splash when it lands in North America, Europe, and Central Asia next year, too. As of yet the game doesn’t have specific release dates in any of those territories, but we’ll keep our eyes peeled.

In the interim, if you want to see what Assault Fire looks like in action, here’s a ridiculous sniper match set to ridiculous music:

(via 17173)

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