Tencent continues to invest in Western developers. Recently, the Chinese giant acquired 21.97% of the shares of the Polish studio Bloober Team, becoming its largest shareholder. The transaction amount was 77.6 million Polish zloty ($19.5 million).The Medium
In total, Tencent bought 3.8 million shares of the Bloober Team from the investment firm Rockbridge TFI, which ceased to be a shareholder of the Polish studio.
The transaction was carried out through the “daughter” of the Chinese company Serene Century Limited.
As a result, the shares of the Bloober Team rose 11.5% on Friday — from 21.25 zlotys ($5.34) to 23.7 zlotys ($5.96).
According to the president of the Bloober Team
, Piotr Babieno, investments from Tencent speak of growing confidence in the studio and the “maturation” of the Polish gaming market.
This year, the Bloober Team also announced a collaboration with Take-Two and Konami. Now the studio is working on a new game based on a very famous horror franchise. This has given rise to a number of speculations that the authors of The Medium may be involved in the continuation of the Silent Hill series. However, the studio itself is in no hurry to go into the details of the future project.
The Bloober Team was founded in 2008 in Krakow. Among the most famous titles in the developer’s portfolio are the Layers of Fear series, as well as the Blair Witch, Observer and The Medium games. The latter, despite mixed estimates, already on the first day of sales beat off development and marketing costs.
As for Tencent, this year the company has invested in a number of Western studios. Among them are Raccoon Logic (authors of Journey to the Savage Planet), the indie team Stunlock Studios, the German studio Yager (authors of Spec Ops: The Line) and Sumo Group, which she bought for $ 1.3 billion.
Such activity in the M&A market and the desire to gain a foothold in the West is connected, among other things, with the actions of the Chinese government regarding the regulation of the gaming industry. Now the authorities are trying to close all remaining loopholes to local developers, tightening the measures already taken and changing the rules for licensing games.