Franchises Like Story Of Seasons Aiming For Global Expansion Thanks To New Marvelous, Tencent Deal

I'm sure the fact that an always bigger share of the production of videogames is in the hands of a totalitarian dictatorship won't have any negative repercussions on the videogame world (/sarcasm)

10 years from now they own the majority of the industry. And I'm not even kidding, mark my words.

Christ, they just keep on expanding... A gluttonous monster with an insatiable appetite.

Where will it end? Who's next? And... what happens when they lose their current passivity?

Damn, I remember when I used to love Harvest Moon games. I might have to make due with Stardew Valley from now on.

If you cannot outright steal the control of people's IP. I guess the next step is buying them up subversively.

Clearly China's stance on content control won't hinder games like Senran Kagura, clearly.

Oof, that doesn't sound all that good

Oh noooooo. I can't believe Story of Seasons is dead for real now... The next one will be a gutted mobile game filled with microtransactions.

Guess we better hope that Stardew Valley becomes a franchise to replace it.

Friends of Mineral Town might be the proper send off fro the franchise.

@Averagewriter pst- Neverland is behind rune factory, not story of seasons.

@Eel @ReaperExTenebris Indeed. But somehow, given all the centuries of China-Japan relations, I doubt that Japanese people and industry will remain idle if China attempts to exert strong cultural influence (up to the point of censorship) on cultural products.

Westerners, or at least the short-term market-oriented types, on the other hand, seem happy to accept the mores of dictatorships. Still boycotting your b***s***, Blizzard, Ubisoft, Epic...

@ReikoMortis I share your sentiments. This is why I try very hard not to complain about the production values of indies; in the worst case, this is all that might be left. And yet NL has been known to cry, "Not yet ANOTHER retro pixel art game!"

@Flowerlark well here is hoping they are just providing money and won’t demand creative changes for a while. I still need marvelous to redo a wonderful life with same sex marriage.

Gross. Can Tencent just disappear please?

Stop taking China's money. It's not worth it.

@Menardi Eh, it’s not like China don’t put gay people through horrific conversion therapy. Yes, representation isn’t exactly the biggest concern here but they have a point in that China’s main ‘enemies’ are Uighur Muslims and LGBT people.

@Averagewriter We should find someone that fits into every category like some kinda chosen one type figure.

Tencent:

I just wanted to see more Senran Kagura on Switch. If there was ever a chance of that, I think it’s been snuffed out now.

@Ryu_Niiyama - Tencent works directly with the CCP. You wanna do business in China, you go through Tencent. And they ask for a chunk of your soul in turn.

And mix that with China attempting to control what WIPO, and failing, surely they're attempting to garner more control fast as their grasp on economic power is timing out.

So no, this won't be simply a supportive financial bid. It's control, plain and simple.

@locky-mavo - Shame too, as I saw some rumor of the first two being ported to the Switch not long ago. Was supposedly going to be announced this Summer with a Winter release in Japan.

And just when I was gonna get my Mom, the Mineral Town remake.....

@Octane except nintendo will never let tencent own them not in a billion of years.

Tencent!?
...ooh, that's a shame.

@NIN10DOXD the remake is pre-tencent though. Might be the last game they release without their influence. So go get it if you want it.

@Eel I just don't want to give my money to them if possible.

Communism and Socialism is never a good thing people.

@RiasGremory I never mentioned Nintendo; and they aren't the majority of the industry. Besides, Tencent already has the rights to publish anything Nintendo in mainland China it seems. That's a sixth of the population right there, you can't just write that off.

So the Harvest moon fans can rest at ease: The series is now definitely over!