Tencent are reportedly in the process of acquiring Polish-based Russian developer and publisher 1C Entertainment group.
Game World Observer reports (via GRY-OnLine) that the potential acquisition was spotted on the Polish Office of Competition and Consumer Protection website. Tencent subsidiary Proxima Beta Europe would be the company directly acquiring 1C Entertainment. As none of the parties involved have made an announcements, details about the deal are scant, including how close the deal is to being done.
1C Entertainment are working on King’s Bounty II, and are best known for the King’s Bounty series, Deep Sky Derelicts, IL-2 Sturmovik, Men of War, and the Space Rangers series.
They also specialize in publishing major studios’ games in Russia; including Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, Take-Two Interactive, Ubisoft, and Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. In 2018, Forbes Russia reported they made 12% of turnover generated by all Russian franchise businesses.
Across the 1C Entertainment Group, other products and services include business applications and software, cloud services, digital distribution services, physical game accessories, programming, testing, and localization.
Tencent’s portfolio includes ownership of Riot Games, Sumo Digital’s parent company, 80% of Grinding Gear Games, 40% in Epic Games, 29% in Funcom, 5% in Activision Blizzard, 5% in Ubisoft, 5% in Paradox Interactive, a “major investment” in PlatinumGames, a majority stake in Klei Entertainment, a major shareholder for Marvelous, a minority stake in Dontnod Entertainment, and others.
Tencent were reportedly negotiating with a US national security panel to keep their investments in US companies Epic Games and Riot Games. A German outlet reported from their sources that Tencent sought to acquire Crytek; which may also give them access to the western military simulators the developer makes.
In recent news, lost almost $60 billion USD in stock value; after Chinese state media’s Economic Information Daily described online games as “spiritual opium.”
Image: King’s Bounty II (via Steam)
