1C Entertainment, registered in Poland, which owns the rights to the King’s Bounty and Space Rangers series, announced that it has become part of the Chinese corporation Tencent (Updated: “Caliber” is not included in the deal).
According to the press release, the deal was concluded at the end of November. Under its terms, Tencent acquired all available shares of 1C Entertainment from its parent company 1C. Thanks to this, the Chinese giant now has a controlling stake in the Warsaw publisher.
The price of the issue is not reported. However, it is known that within six months 1C Entertainment and its divisions should be removed from the name 1C. Recall that now this game group includes:
- Cenega — European distributor of video games;
- Muve is a digital video game distributor and online store operator;
- Qloc is a testing, localization and porting company (it was responsible for porting the Gotham Knights, Mortal Kombat 11 and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 projects to PC);
- 1C Online Games is a publisher and developer of games for all platforms.
It is unclear from the press release* whether 1C Game Studios, which is developing the Il-2 Stormtrooper series, as well as the tactical shooter Caliber, has become part of the deal. Probably not. At the same time, the team that created King’s Bounty 2 is officially listed in 1C Entertainment.
* After the news was published, we learned that “Caliber” is definitely not part of the deal. Most likely, the same is true for the IL-2 Stormtrooper.
Recall that 1C Entertainment has Russian roots.
In the noughties, it was the largest distributor and publisher of domestic games. For example, her portfolio includes almost all single titles from Nival Studio. In recent years, the company has also been acting as a Steam publisher.
As for the deal, the first rumors about it took place last August thanks to a message from the Polish Competition and Consumer Protection Authority (UOKiK). The message indicated that Amsterdam-based Proxima Beta Europe, a subsidiary of Tencent, intends to take control of 1C Entertainment.