(Yicai) June 20 -- Tencent Games announced that the gaming arm of Chinese internet giant Tencent Holdings has pulled hit mobile game Dungeon and Fighter from the app stores of some Chinese companies.

Tencent Games will no longer upload DnF updates on the app stores of Huawei Technologies, Oppo Mobile Telecommunications, and Vivo Communication Technologies from today because the contracts with the smartphone makers have expired and the game’s distribution strategy has changed, Yicai learned from a source familiar with the matter.

Xiaomi is also one of the phone vendors that will no longer upload DnF updates on its app store, according to 21st Century Business Herald. But an insider denied the news to Yicai.

App stores of smartphone vendors other than Apple take about half of mobile game revenues and sell unofficial game packages to charge additional fees, so it is better for game distributors to discontinue their products on such app stores and begin offering them for download only on their official websites, said Huang Yimeng, chief executive officer of Chinese game developer XD Network.

XD’s Go Go Muffin ranked fourth on the best-selling chart despite being available only on its official website, so DnF, which has been the best-seller among Chinese mobile games for a long time, should not have any troubles by exiting app stores, Huang noted.

However, a DnF player told Yicai he believes the game’s ability to attract new players will be affected if it is no longer available in some app stores.

DnF was developed by South Korean game developer Neople, with Tencent Games as the distributor in China. The computer version of DnF entered the Chinese market in 2008, while the mobile version started public testing in China on May 21.

In the last 11 days of May, DnF’s revenue from Apple’s App Store surpassed that of Honor of Kings and Game for Peace combined, enabling Tencent Games to achieve a 12 percent increase in mobile game revenue last month, according to data from market intelligence firm Sensor Tower.

Editor: Futura Costaglione