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0Erinome:Hello dear friends! Welcome to our podcast. Today, Enceladus and I will chat about some recent news. Let's start with a big one—Tencent closed its TiMi Montréal studio. Did you hear that?
Enceladus:Oh wow, really? When did that happen? I remember TiMi is a big game team under Tencent.
Erinome:Yeah, the news said it was closed recently. The studio started in 2021, so it’s only five years old. But guess what? They never made their own game in these five years!
Enceladus:No way! Five years and no game? That’s so strange. What did they do then?
Erinome:They worked on other projects, like helping with "Pokémon Unite" and "Call of Duty Mobile"—you know, making them work in different countries. But no original games. A senior programmer even wrote on LinkedIn that they saw it coming, but it still made them sad.
Enceladus:Hmm, why did Tencent close it? Maybe it cost too much?
Erinome:Probably! Some people online said the team was "not efficient"—like, they took too long and did nothing. And Tencent is now focusing more on AI, not old ways of making games.
Enceladus:Oh right! AI can help make games faster, right? So maybe this studio was too slow.
Erinome:Exactly! Also, the studio was in Canada, and foreign teams can be expensive. Tencent might think, "Why spend so much for no result?"
Enceladus:That makes sense. Any other news today?
Erinome:Yes! Meizu’s phone team was disbanded. You know Meizu, the phone brand? They were bought by Geely, the car company.
Enceladus:Oh, I heard Geely. So Meizu stopped making phones?
Erinome:Not exactly, but their team is解散 (jiesan—disbanded). Maybe Geely wants them to work on car systems instead of phones. Their direction was摇摆不定 (yaobai buding—unstable), like trying to keep "small and beautiful" phones but also focusing on car tech.
Enceladus:Sad for the Meizu team. What about movies? Any news there?
Erinome:The 2026 Spring Festival movie season just ended. The total box office was 5.752 billion yuan. But wait—compared to last year, it’s down 39.5%! That’s the lowest in 8 years.
Enceladus:Oh no! Why so low? Did people not go to movies?
Erinome:Yes, the number of people was down too—120 million people, 36.4% less than last year. Even on the first day of the holiday, only 1 billion yuan, and daily average was under 1 billion for the first time in 6 years.
Enceladus:Wow, that’s bad. Which movie was the most popular?
Erinome:"Flying Life 3" was first with 2.927 billion yuan. Then "Jingzhe Wusheng", "Biaoren: Wind in the Desert"… but even the top one couldn’t save the low box office.
Enceladus:Maybe the movies weren’t good enough? Or people just prefer watching at home now?
Erinome:Could be. Some people online said the movies were not exciting. Or maybe the tickets were too expensive?
Enceladus:Hmm. So today’s news is a bit sad—closed studios, disbanded teams, low box office.
Erinome:Yeah, but it’s part of business, right? Companies change focus, and sometimes hard choices are needed.
Enceladus:True. Well, that’s the news for today. Thanks for listening, everyone!
Erinome:Okay, that's it for today. Let's talk again next time! Bye!
