ChuckeRearmed
Regular
Why Tencent is so prone on acquiring stakes left and right? Why other companies don't do that and try to buy the company itself? What are the benefits?
it likely gives them some insight into the operations of the companies that they invest in, and its also likely that they get the right to counter-offer any potential acquisition offer made by another company.Why Tencent is so prone on acquiring stakes left and right? Why other companies don't do that and try to buy the company itself? What are the benefits?
I see. So basically Tencent is doing a long play there. I wonder if they own a lot of shares can they purchase the whole company if needed.it likely gives them some insight into the operations of the companies that they invest in, and its also likely that they get the right to counter-offer any potential acquisition offer made by another company.
This ensures that no one else is going to acquire the company without them knowing about it, and if they want to, stopping it. The reason microsoft or sony, (or anyone else for that matter) is not doing this is because having 10% ownership of a ton of companies does nothing for them, it doesnt get any content on gamepass for microsoft, and it doesnt make them first party for playstation. Microsoft and sony's business model isnt entirely based on revenue, of course thats part of it, but increasing the user base is a bigger part (which of course leads to more revenue, but having a one time hit of revenue from a game that does well isnt as good as increasing the player base long term)
MS is working with Netease there right?Tencent is also appealing to companies who have no presence in the China, as they can assist them with navigating the requirements of what must be done to make inroads.
yeah they are handling the china version of minecraft, I dont know if the partnership goes beyond minecraft though. I think sea of theives could do well internationally with a strong local partner in someone like netease, it will be interesting to see if they expand their partnershipMS is working with Netease there right?
I thought Sea of Thieves was available in China though...yeah they are handling the china version of minecraft, I dont know if the partnership goes beyond minecraft though. I think sea of theives could do well internationally with a strong local partner in someone like netease, it will be interesting to see if they expand their partnership
I thought Sea of Thieves was available in China though...
No, I don't think so. They are poaching the talent though and invest in studios. I don't think they will buy Sega.There's some recent rumor/speculation about Tencent buying Sega
Exclusive: China's NetEase is in final negotiations to poach Yakuza franchise creator Toshihiro Nagoshi from Sega. Linked below is shorter translated version in Japanese, my original in English article hitting soon. Will share when it drops.
Exclusive: NetEase is in final negotiations to poach Yakuza franchise creator Nagoshi from Sega. Tencent is close to acquire another Japanese studio. Two are stepping up investment in Japan, and Japanese studios are "have no other options" situation.
Normally what governments do doesn't really impact gaming, but in this case...
China is increasing it's crackdown on game development. At the end of Aug. it put into law more stringent restrictions on how long game developers and publishers can allow minors to play games in China.
They have ramped those up as they are imposing more restrictions. These are aimed at limiting or removing violent content in games, glorification of money in games, effeminate portrayals of men in games, etc. I don't imagine it'll be very long before any game that doesn't glorify the Chinese government is prohibited in China or by any games developed by Chinese owned companies. Likewise, I imagine it's only a matter of time before portrayal of gay content in games is prohibited as presaged by prohibition of effeminate men.
Also, game companies and all companies in general in China should stop focusing on making large sums of money and should instead focus on the public good. I could make an argument here WRT how this is in preparations of China going to a wartime economy ... but ... anyway.
Why is this worrisome? Think about all the gaming companies around the world which Tencent either own a majority stake, own outright or own a large controlling interest.
Development houses outside of China may or may not be able to avoid some of the restrictions that China is placing on game development, but anything developed in China most certainly won't. Either Tencent gets those companies to follow China's regulations or bad things could happen to the people at Tencent. That's a lot of pressure on Tencent to exert more control over studios under their umbrella.
Scary stuff, IMO. Especially since some of my favorite games and developers are under the Tencent umbrella: Warframe (Digital Extremes), Path of Exile (Grinding Gear Games), Epic Games (40% owned by Tencent who also own rights to nominate people to Epic's board of directors), and plenty of other Western developers.
OTOH - if I try to look at the silver lining, maybe this will get Tencent to divest itself of Western developers. But the dark side is that they just close them down because selling them would potentially make them a profit potentially angering Ji Xinping, which you do NOT want to do if you are in China.
Regards,
SB
So......no horror games anymore?Tencent is the largest shareholder of Bloober Team
– We are honored by Tencent's interest – comments President Piotr Babieno. Let's add that the Chinese behemoth is also greedy for PixelAnt, Cenega, QLOC and Muve.
Today, however, we learned that Tencent has become the largest shareholder of Bloober Team. Century Limited, a subsidiary of the Chinese, acquired from Rockbridge TFI 3.88 million shares of the Krakow-based company, i.e. approx. 22% of its total shares. Tencent spent approx. PLN 77.6 millionon this purchase.
So......no horror games anymore?