Chinese mobile game dev Linekong spends $20M on a new U.S. studio

Chinese mobile game firm Linekong is making a big push Westward by investing $20 million in a new California-base studio, Linekong US, intended to help it succeed in the Western mobile game market.

Last year many Chinese game developers had the West in their sights, and the decision by Linekong -- known for producing mobile games like One Hundred Thousand Bad Jokes (pictured) -- to open a new studio in Burlingame suggests that continues to be the case in 2016.

However, Linekong US general manager Roy Liu told GamesBeat that Chinese developer interest in expanding West may cool down for a time due to a slowdown in the Asian mobile game market.

"A lot of Chinese companies headed to the U.S. in 2015," Liu told GamesBeat. "They are still coming. But I think it will pause for a while because the game market in Asia has cooled a bit."

Liu goes on to posit that if Linekong US can produce a mobile game that's a hit in the West, the same game may succeed equally well in Asia. With that in mind, the new studio (which, according to Liu, already has 25 staffers and is continuing to hire) aims to release its first game later this year.