The ByteDance logo is seen at the company's office building in Shanghai, China, July 4, 2023. The Chinese technology firm has no plan to return to the $185 billion global video games market, said the people, who declined to be identified as the information is not public. Casual gaming brand Ohayoo, whose games feature on Douyin - TikTok's sister app in China - will not be affected, neither will casual games that run on TikTok, one of the people said. ByteDance's 2019 creation of Nuverse was widely seen as a major push into global gaming and a strategic element of its competition with domestic rival Tencent Holdings (0700.HK), the world's biggest gaming company. Nuverse came into focus again in 2021 when ByteDance formalised its status as one of its six business units under a broader structural overhaul.

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Persons: Aly, Will, ByteDance, Pico, Nuverse, Josh Ye, Brenda Goh, Christopher Cushing Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Moonton Technology, Tencent Holdings, HK, C4games, Thomson Locations: Shanghai, China, HONG KONG