Winking Entertainment, ("Winking"), was founded in 2003. Headquartered in Shanghai, Winking is dedicated to providing clients with a high-level, international art outsourcing service, and it has become one of the three largest art outsourcing brands in Greater China.
WindThunder Studio—the precursor of Winking—was a console games R&D group well-known in China in the 1990s, which produced a number of successful games. In particular, Guardian's Sword, Heroine Anthem and Project C have developed into classic Chinese gaming IP that even today enjoys great popularity with huge numbers of loyal fans.
Picture: Project C
Winking went into VR games in 2015, becoming one of the first VR content suppliers in China. Its first VR game Unearthing Mars was part of the first batch produced for the PlayStation VR - one of the main VR gaming platforms, and has attracted much attention since its release. When it was launched in 2017, Winking took the opportunity to establish a global publishing network with specialists available at fixed stores in Europe and America, and direct publishing operations in Asia. Through direct communications with SIE and more than 300 media outlets around the world, Unearthing Mars topped the PSVR sales lists in both America and Japan, and came third in the Asian list.
Picture: Unearthing Mars
Unearthing Mars was designed for a global market right from the start. A professional crew was recruited to dub the game into various languages with corresponding subtitles, including Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, French, Germany, etc. After it was launched, the crew continued to localize it and differentiate it for different regions of the global market. This all contributed to the great popularity of Unearthing Mars across the world.
Winking has now gained access to mainstream games platforms such as PlayStation, NINTENDO SWITCH and Steam, where it can publish new games globally. It is the agent for more than a dozen game titles, including A Samurai Awakens, which won the Best VR Game at PAXEAST 2017, the largest gaming convention in North America, the first-person shooter Bandit Six:Combined Arms, developed by Climax Studios from the UK, and FATED:The Silent Oath by Italian developer Frima Studio.
Rejuvenating classic IP titles, developing VR games and acting as a global publishing agent are all signs of Winking's solid progress. Remaining true to its original aspiration to create excellent games, Winking will continue to explore new avenues for games development with passion and commitment.