New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

Earlier this year in April, Tencent was given the approval to start selling the New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe Switch bundle in mainland China. The news saw Nintendo's shares increase by more than 13 percent and Tencent followed this up by forming a "Nintendo cooperation department" to help manage the launch. Since then, the Chinese video game giant has reportedly been seeking Switch port specialists.

Now, in a report from The Wall Street Journal, Tencent has revealed it wants to expand its reach beyond China, by targeting console players within the United States and across Europe. So, how does it plan to achieve this? By using Nintendo characters to create consoles games. Here's the official statement:

What we want is to expand from China, and one target is console game players in the U.S. and Europe. We hope to create console games with Nintendo characters, and learn the essence of making console games from Nintendo engineers.

In the same report, Lisa Cosmas Hanson from Niko Partners suggested Tencent was silently expanding, without rebranding companies:

Tencent is skillfully pursuing silent global domination, via expansion primarily in the form of major and minor investments in [videogame] industry companies around the world without rebranding them as Tencent

Tencent currently has stakes in Epic Games, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, and the mobile power-house Supercell.

As for its new partnership with Nintendo, Tencent officials have revealed they don't believe the Switch will sell as well in China as it has in other markets. Nintendo's President Shuntaro Furukawa also made similar comments to analysts in recent times.

How would you feel about Tencent making console games featuring Nintendo characters? Could you see something like this happening? Share your thoughts below.

[source wsj.com, via businessinsider.com.au]