Following on from Vicarious Visions merging with Blizzard, it's now been announced Chinese video game giant Tencent - known for titles like League of Legends and Clash of Clans - will acquire a "majority stake" in Klei Entertainment.
If you're not familiar with this Canadian-based developer, it's the studio behind games like Don't Starve and Mark of the Ninja. Klei Entertainment founder, Jaime 'Bigfoot' Cheng, says Klei will retain "full autonomy of creative and operations across all aspects of the studio, including projects, talent and more".
In an FAQ on Klei's website, Cheng explained there would be no immediate changes in the future to "staffing, projects or other operations". As for the reason behind this decision, it will allow the studio to "not have to worry about finances", do their "best creative work" and navigate a changing industry.
"There are some boring accounting changes that we will need to adjust to. Other than that, I will continue running the studio as before, with no changes to staffing, projects or other operations."
"Klei has been around for 15 years, and we have made many changes over the years in order to respond to a changing world. Consistently, my wish has been to enable people to do their best creative work, to learn and grow, to not have to worry about finances, and be able to enjoy their lives outside the studio. This has not changed."
"This partnership helps us navigate a changing industry, and helps us focus on what we do best: making unique experiences that no one else can."
According to a report from Niko Partners via GamesIndustry.biz, Tencent invested in 31 deals related to the games industry last year - a new record for the company. These were a "mix of acquisitions, mergers, minor and major stakes, and funding rounds."
Some of these deals included a minor stake in PlatinumGames and a stake in Japanese publisher Marvelous. With 2021 just kicking off, who knows what else Tencent could acquire in the coming months.
[source forums.kleientertainment.com, via gematsu.com]
Comments 73
for ***** sake
Tired of Tencent gaining control over the gaming space with how shady it is. Just hope that it doesn’t get to Take Two like rumors suggest
Oh god no! Sell Don't Starve damn it! Don't let these ***** bags lay their disgusting fingers on it! Better in the hands of someone else other than Tencent!
China already owns Canada so this ain't surprising
This is gross sucks I can't refund my copy of Steam
What a way to basically sink your company.
Tencent trying to buy out everything
Just like everything Tencent touches, produces, and is, this sucks.
This just makes me sad.
Really bad news. Hope they don't starve the developers. (Sorry for the joke.)
Next studios, owned by Tenecent, made Crown Trick and I loved that game. I'm not a Tenecent hater and not sure why to be other than "big company bad" mentality.
How about you F**k off tecent leave them alone.
Seems people like to hate Tencent. …they're not that bad really.
It'd be interesting to see how many people would complain if these dudes were bought by Facebook or Google and were subject to some restructuring as part of the deal (Tencent did not demand that).
@PosterBoy - There's no need for the whataboutism. Google or Facebook acquiring them would be equally as saddening.
It's no secret people like to blame Asians, especially Chinese, but giant Chinese corporations actually merit the distrust. The Chinese government has compalined about games where they are criticized, and a giant corporation from there is not going to be good for free speech. See Blitzchung and see what I mean. I'm always glad to see people not crapping on something Chinese because it's Chinese, but do not trust Tencent. They are a very bad influence.
@Vsaxo27 tencent isn’t a “big company bad” situation. Tencent is owned by the chinese government. It’s a human rights issue.
@iLikeUrAttitude As a means to control media. It's pathetic because I don't think all those Bond films with the Russian bad guy even contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union. But it's more about the ability for people in the gaming to even criticize them. They were able to get Activision to throw Blitzchung under the bus. Developers probably can't even talk about it without fear of retribution.
Did Tencent kill someone? I know Tencent because of their Epic store. I like them, they give me a free game every week there and no I am not loyal to just 1 store, they all want my money, so equally evil to me.
@hakjie11 Yeah, kinda. They did arguably caused the worse outcome of the coronavirus pandemic.
@PosterBoy and @Geonjaha, you might want to see this video: https://youtu.be/7mpjW6oeJBI It tells you all about Tencent's problems and why it's worse than Google, Facebook, etc.
@darkswabber
I see your point but just being owned by the gov doesn't mean it is a HR violators.
Look up Tenecent, they are pushing quite a lot of infrastructure innovation in China. Not everything can be generalized as "that X is bad!"
Sounds like they would no longer be indie. Though their first game (Shank) was published by EA.
Tencent? Never played any of their games. Never even heard of any of their games lol.
@Geonjaha if we're bringing in CCP, evil, China (I'm still waiting for Epic) and so on here, I think I score pretty low on the whataboutism scale here.
Edit: hopefully I increased my whataboutism score with this post But yeah reading the rest of the posts here I still have a long way to go before I even reach the average…
As an accountant I take offence to their first comment haha. Math can be fun.... takes sip of breakfast whisky
They're to big. Someone has to stop them.
@HotGoomba___Rebrand Yeah I know about Tencent, been using their software for some 10 years. It's pretty good!
Anyway I watched half of the video and there's nothing out of the ordinary there as far as big corporations go (it's almost a typical "big business" story, stuff that we all sadly accept as granted), I stopped watching at the part where the presenter puts her own interpretation on the word "propaganda" (she does not know what the word means) and spectacularly fails to grasp what the "Clap for Xi" is (or maybe she's too subtle and I missed it).
Can you point me to the exact part where Tencent's crimes are presented?
Boy 2021 is off with a good start. United States is going to become part of Communist China very soon.
Always depressing to hear news about Tencent acquisitions
@PosterBoy One of the crimes was that when the Chinese government first discovered the Coronavirus, Tencent blocked any mention of the virus on their WeChat app. If Tencent and the Chinese gov just told everyone what was going on, we wouldn't be stuck in our houses rn (or at least months ago).
It's not exactly Tencent's fault, but that doesn't make it ok!
@HotGoomba___Rebrand I haven't seen that in the video but from your description it sounds like they were doing what the government told them to do. The government, in turn, was trying to stop spreading rumors and panicking (they have a few of these zombie apocalypse things happening every year after all) – easier than banning disgusting practices and stupid stuff I guess.
So what should have Tencent done? Disobeyed the government?
No please no, I don’t even play the game and still no
Thanks, I hate it. Screw Tencent.
Hey Jaime Cheng and Klei Entertainment,
When the Chinese Communist Party releases our fellow Canadians, Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor (to say nothing of giving them due process for their trumped-up charges), maybe we can then talk about how you abandoned the Switch version of Don't Starve. Selling out to autocracy always makes things easier, doesn't it?
Go **** yourselves.
Seems people like to hate Tencent. …they're not that bad really.
@PosterBoy Giant, monopoly-sized companies are bad enough, wherever they may be. Tencent, of course, is a uniquely government-enabled one.
In addition, companies in the PRC are required to have government (that is, Party) membership in their management, up to and including military officials in some companies.
Still comfortable with all this? Then you may wish to recall Blizzard's punishment of Blitzchung and the two live hosts over the former's protest for Hong Kong democracy.
In his home base of Vancouver, I am quite sure that Jaime Cheng is aware that the CCP has a very poor reputation right now. People won't forget how the PRC government "appropriated" Canadian funding and research into the Cansino vaccine, and then decided not to ship the vaccine at all, despite being paid for.
No, there are consequences for things in this life. Imperialist bullying is imperialist bullying, whoever does it.
Look up Tenecent, they are pushing quite a lot of infrastructure innovation in China. Not everything can be generalized as "that X is bad!"
@Vsaxo27 How did Tencent come by that power and influence in the PRC?
@COVIDberry
From government connections most likely, but that doesn't translate to "X company is bad" mantra.
@COVIDberry "companies in the PRC are required to have government (that is, Party) membership in their management, up to and including military officials in some companies."
Did you read that on stupid BBC or something? That is not true, at least not in the company I worked for (100 % Chinese except me as far as I know).
"Blizzard's punishment of Blitzchung and the two live hosts over the former's protest for Hong Kong democracy."
Personally I would kick out anybody that brings politics into (e)sports, keep that crap to yourself. I totally get it why people do that but no. Same for religion.
"No, there are consequences for things in this life. Imperialist bullying is imperialist bullying, whoever does it." I completely agree!
It's no secret people like to blame Asians, especially Chinese, but giant Chinese corporations actually merit the distrust.
@Vincent294 Being an anti-Asian imbecile might be especially difficult on NintendoLife...
Really gross...........
"Klei retains full autonomy of creative and operations." Keep telling yourselves that. RIP.
@LaytonPuzzle27 The United States at an institutional level already is under CCP control, unfortunately, and irrevocably so.
Rest in peace Klei...
@GeoChrome Problem is if game devs want to be able to sell games in China they have to be backed by a Chinese company. Heck even Nintendo goes through Tencent to sell Switches in China.
@Averagewriter "You're talking about one of the most repressive governments on the planet." I wouldn't really call them that but alright, they're not flowers either. I won't comment on how evil Chinese government is since the article is about Tencent and Klei.
Anyway, if their government is so brutal as you seem to think, doesn't it make sense for Tencent (whoever's making the decisions there) to just obey and not risk going to jail?
@COVIDberry
Japan is more Western than Asian. From what I understand a lot of Japanese prefer to be associated with more Western culture than Asian culture.
@Averagewriter "what's happened to buisness in China since Xi took over, I recommend you read this. … crushed the concept of economic autonomy in China…" Oh it's an article from The Guardian. Anyway, don't worry there is still plenty of economic autonomy in China. Too much probably.
You're talking about one of the most repressive governments on the planet." I wouldn't really call them that but alright, they're not flowers either.
Anyway, if their government is so brutal as you seem to think
@PosterBoy Tell us another one, buddy. Perhaps you actually think you're convincing the masses and muddying the waters successfully. As for the brutality of the regime in Beijing, I'll just recall 8964, not to mention the personal relationships I have with HK and Taiwanese people. I'll take their words over your lame, shallow attempts.
You'd best hope that Xi Jinping is not the insane dictator that he appears to be, because if he makes an attempt at Taiwan, people like you are going to get unpopular. Fast.
@Averagewriter Ho ho, strawmaning me? Tut tut. Anyway first I did not say that, in fact I explicitly refused to be dragged into that juvenile discussion. Here goes again: "I won't comment on how evil Chinese government is since the article is about Tencent and Klei."
… and second, I don't think there's any government in the world (Chinese included) that truly believes they can have "literally controlling every aspect of its population's lives" as their end aim. Nobody intelligent can truly believe that.
Japan is more Western than Asian. From what I understand a lot of Japanese prefer to be associated with more Western culture than Asian culture.
@Don I would have sooner characterized the Philippines that way. I think I take your point, though. Perhaps we can agree that Japan tends to do things its own way. I hope I get to visit.
@COVIDberry "Tell us another one, buddy."
I'm fairly certain you wouldn't agree if I told you and it'd just be a waste of my time.
"Perhaps you actually think you're convincing the masses and muddying the waters successfully."
No I don't think that at all. What in the world makes you say that?
"As for the brutality of the regime in Beijing, I'll just recall 8964, not to mention the personal relationships I have with HK and Taiwanese people."
Hey what do you know, maybe I have some personal relationships of that kind too? Or business ties? I like that you took the effort to put "personal relationships" in italics, shows that you really care.
"I'll take their words over your lame, shallow attempts."
What attempts? In any case yeah, sure, please take their words over mine, makes sense to trust your family / buddies over a random dude on internet.
"You'd best hope that Xi Jinping is not the insane dictator that he appears to be, because if he makes an attempt at Taiwan, people like you are going to get unpopular. Fast."
The only thing I hope while writing this reply is that you'd cool down a bit but not sure that'll happen. Anyway believe me, Xi's action will not have any influence on my popularity whatsoever.
Sounds like someone here is rather keen on defending tencent and the ccp, that is very concerning.
It’s just kinda weird to say they don’t need to worry about financials as much now, because even if they don’t have a huge flop that would sink them as an indie, Tencent could decide they’re just not pulling in enough to be valuable and shutter the whole thing. Exactly the way bigger companies keep doing it in the gaming industry.
If the complaints here by Tencent are merely political and "humanistic" ideas, you better put them aside please, here is video games please.
If you "care too much" about those ideas and Tencent, believe me, Tencent is the "LEAST" that you should worry.
Ack! Get your fingers out of the pies before someone cuts them off, Tencent!
Dear god, this article is horrible. Tencent isn't known for league of legends or Clash of Clans. They don't even publish those games. Tencent Games publish Honor of Kings and other stuff on China and Asia and they are just sister companies to those other subsidiaries of Tencent.
Tencent, the one you mention, is the giant conglomerate that isn't involved with games and acts as investors for those many companies. Like seriously, do a research before to know how the organization of those companies work..
Never understood the hate behind tencent. I fact I never heard of them before the whole pokemon unite thing
31 merges/acquisitions/stake investments last year. And still some people refuse to believe that Tencent is slowly gaining control of the industry.
'Oh, we highly value your input... until you sign the deal!'
-Tencent
Glad to see almost everyone else in the comments are against this. I’ve tried to avoid seeing Tencent films at the theater and games funded by Tencent.
This goes to show how people like to pirate games and movies resulting in companies being bought by others that they didn't support but fail blame themselves for causing the problem. How about Pirates suckup and support these companies instead of pirating games and movies which would help them grow and be sustainable. Maybe then we can have a real conversation about China buying companies. But then again if Canada is working on Capitalism then they themselves are to blame for this happening as well. Everyone loves to talk about Capitalism until china comes to buy the company and now it's called China Syndrome. Remember Canada everything you buy was MADE IN CHINA. You yourself is to blame for this as well.
It's not like they were forced to sell. They must have earned quite some coins.
@PosterBoy ""companies in the PRC are required to have government (that is, Party) membership in their management, up to and including military officials in some companies."
Did you read that on stupid BBC or something? That is not true, at least not in the company I worked for"
I taught university in China. Each class had a communist party student representative (i.e. spy). My first semester there I was invited out to dinner by these spies and asked questions like "So...what do you think of Tibet?"
@PosterBoy " The government, in turn, was trying to stop spreading rumors and panicking"
It was a great move to reward the doctor that discovered COVID by threatening him with prosecution. Sure prevented a panic! We all thank you CCP!
"Klein retains autonomy."
Like China's uncontested quality of freedom within the country?
"Klei retains full autonomy of creative and operations"
HAH!
@HotGoomba___Rebrand I didn't know that those Mother*****.
@Arkay I keep hearing more and more stuff about them and I can not see how anyone can defend them at all
@SwitchForce
"This goes to show how people like to pirate games and movies resulting in companies being bought but others that people like to blame for them our problem in causing. How about Pirates suckup and support these companies instead of pirating games and movies which would help them grow and be sustainable."
"In the end without this the Judges will toss the merits of the claims not enough evidence since people only makes claims but no Documentation and you can find whatever claims you want on the internet but short of Facts you have nothing."
so you wanna back that statement up with documentation? In regards to this instance of course.
@PosterBoy who do you think runs Facebook and Google?
@MontyCircus
"I taught university in China. Each class had a communist party student representative (i.e. spy). My first semester there I was invited out to dinner by these spies and asked questions like "So...what do you think of Tibet?""
Not that unusual for students to be politically active as far as I know (nothing illegal about it), does not make anybody a "spy" automatically. So were those communist party student representatives actually doing anything (beating people up, jailing them, reading your phone over your shoulder, anything interesting), or is it more like "president of the class" role?
People ask such questions regardless, I was asked similar questions by grannies selling baozi. It's just a topic of interest. I doubt they ran off to their party HQ and furiously typed a 200 page report about you after the dinner. And even if they did, nobody would read it anyway. Maybe that's what would have happened in 60s, but people are too busy with other things nowadays. Touching their phone, for example.
What were you teaching there if it's not a secret?
"The government, in turn, was trying to stop spreading rumors and panicking" "It was a great move to reward the doctor that discovered COVID by threatening him with prosecution. Sure prevented a panic! We all thank you CCP!"
I did not say it was a great move (I do understand the reasoning behind it, which does not mean I endorse it). Come on, isn't it a bit too easy to sarcastically roleplay an invented figure of a brainwashed party member and shout "We all thank you CCP!" (people doing that are often brainwashed themselves in my experience, only with different ideals).
@Trajan Not sure about the details, I'm only familiar with the most famous names like Zuckerberg, that Sergey dude, I also know about Alphabet and a few other bits one picks up here and there. Obviously there's much more to it than that. Why do you ask?
Didn’t think much of this until I saw that they developed Mark of the Ninja. I LOVED that game! I have not heard of this company, but going by these comments, I guess I’ll never get that sequel.
@KillerBOB This hurts my Canadian sensibilities.
@pixelpatch
It's a shame, but it's true. Our government sold out to them long ago.
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