Chinese conglomerate Tencent is putting investment dollars in yet another game company. This time the recipient is Yager Development, the Berlin-based team behind Spec Ops: The Line and Dreadnought. Yager will maintain full independence while using Tencent’s investment to further support its first-person free-to-play shooter, The Cycle. This new partnership with Tencent will also allow the studio to build towards future projects.
According to CEO Timo Ullmann, Yager stands to gain other resources from Tencent, such as “industry know-how.” In a statement about the investment, Ullmann noted the following, “We’re confident that this will greatly enhance the scope of our business, not just by getting access to Tencent’s network and resources but by tapping the vast industry know-how Tencent possesses.”
Earlier this year, Tencent entered a similar partnership with NieR: Automata developer PlatinumGames. With the newly received capital investment, PlatinumGames intends to explore self-publishing. The Wonderful 101: Remastered, courtesy of a remarkably successful Kickstarter campaign, may very well serve as the studio’s first big self-publishing step. Other recent Tencent news involves the conglomerate’s attempt to fully acquire Funcom, the Norwegian studio responsible for Conan: Exiles.
Tencent’s influence on the industry as a whole is far-reaching, making it the world’s biggest video game company. League of Legends developer Riot Games, for instance, is wholly owned by the holdings company. A 40 percent stake in Epic Games clearly contributes to Tencent’s unprecedented standing, as does its minority stakes in the likes of Activision and Ubisoft. It probably won’t be long before Tencent’s portfolio grows even further.
Still haven’t played Spec Ops: The Line yet? What are you waiting for? If you have a last-gen console, you can pick it up on Amazon for the PS3 or Xbox 360. It’s criminal that it hasn’t received a current-gen version yet, but perhaps this shot in the arm from Tencent will promote a re-release sometime in the future.
[Source: Video Games Chronicle]
This page contains affiliate links to products. Purchases made using these links help support PlayStation LifeStyle.
