Tencent Reportedly Planning To Acquire Crytek Through Subsidiary

"But it should be noted this story is from the German equivalent of The Sun and it's trying to sensationalise a rumor by claiming the Chinese army will use Crytek to spy on the West or something lol"

Because China isn't known for their massive spying system at home and would certainly not want to spread that abroad!

Oh wait.

I'm generally quite pro free market, but I would be totally fine with just banning China from buying any western companies.

@Dalrint agree Bild is not a reliable source and should at best just be ignored

I would normally just write a poem on how Tencent is evil and all, but I think that people get it.

@Dalrint I also find it hilarious coming from a twitter account which is known to be a Chinese shill.

I wish "Tencent" tried to buy me, just to say something about 50 cent offering five times as much and still could (flip) off.

@Pickettfury Crytek is a gaming company...

@Pickettfury it's a lucrative industry. The more eyes you have, the better. They have a long proven track record of this behavior. It's pretty safe to assume they have ulterior motives. It's naive to think gaming is its own bubble when it affects countless lives and other industries....so yeah.

Bill Gates should buy Tencent, that should slow them down a bit.

It is funny to see people using phones loaded of Chinese components typing "I'm afraid of China spying me, they should not buy western companies"

Nowadays there is China even on your toothpaste, get over it...

With TikTok just having confirmed the "conspiracy theories" that they do in fact collect biometric face and voice prints for the Chinese government, i think it's a valid worry that Tencent, a company with direct links to the CCP, acquires a company who provides software solutions to the US military...

But you've heard the folks in the comments, since the CCP is already spying, it's ridiculous to care about more spying!
Just don't worry about it, just continue to consume!

Damn, bye bye Crytek. You'll be missed once you're swallowed by the never ending black hole that is Tencent.

@Einherjar it's the smugness of those same people that's what gets me. You can't bring anything up without them calling you a conspiracy theorist🥴.
China/CCP/Tencent spies on you and should not be trusted.

And to think EA was the bad guy for releasing the same games every year...

They still suck, but they're not as shady as effin Tencent...

@abdias I mean, certainly many things are made in China, but the Chinese government does have a pretty major track record of terrorizing its own people. I think the fear of them spying on the US military is a real concern, and should be considered by Crytek.

Ummm ...

" ... it's trying to sensationalise a rumor by claiming the Chinese army will use Crytek to spy on the West or something lol"

I mean, sure, that a fun thing to say if you want people to pay attention to YOUR crazy, unfounded BS instead of someone else, but if your a developer worried about your job, you're likely more concerned about the part Chinese ownership would almost certainly move them to the "do not buy" list of military tech sold from China and Russia.

So I don't think the focus here is some spy drama stuff, it's "we will lose a major contract and many of us will lose our jobs in the short term"

@Pickettfury waa waa SAFE SPACE. Come on, dont like it, dont read it

screw Tencent they are as big of a disease to gaming like EA and Activision are

Considering Tencent already owns a 40% stake in another game company with a far more popular game engine (Epic), I doubt this is about Tencent wanting another game engine. The military simulation access theory seems plausible.

If Western countries were smart, they would be banning sales like these....

@HotGoomba Do they really, liking how many people are supporting their products shows a different reality!
But the EA boycott made much mire since right?

Anything software China is at best suspect. Germany AG should stop this based on China repression and People Censorship. I don't find anything good of Tencent buying Crytek.

Totally not good news..

@BloodNinja To put it in perspective, Tencent’s estimated market value is about 3x Gates’ net worth, and around 1.5x that of Bezos.

@StardusterEX He should buy them, anyway.

@BloodNinja Zadaris Approved!

@Zadaris I say good chap, jolly good, jolly good!

@Pickettfury There is no escape from “that trash” when the Chinese Communist Party is literally dismantling Western Civilization using unconventional cultural warfare, including next-level propaganda and censorship to shift what is “normal”.

@StardusterEX All major corporations of China are just fronts for the Chinese Communist Party (which is the greatest enemy of the Chinese people), we saw that confirmed when the president of Alibaba tried to show some independence and was “disappeared”.
But you know, it’s looking more and more like Gates and Bezos are also working closely with the CCP through the corrupted UN.
Let’s keep “communism for thee but not for me” propaganda out of gaming.

I don't honestly care much about Crytek at all. But at the same time - no Tencent please. They are not trustworthy.

And even if they weren't tied to the Chinese government, I don't like companies that act like them - buying up smaller companies at every possible chance. I dislike Disney for that same reasoning. So many companies are getting way too huge and they have too much power.

On one hand we have companies like Tencent, tied to powerful untrustworthy national governments. And on the other hand we have multi-national corporations like Disney, Apple, Google and Microsoft that are trying to monopolize entire industries and have grown so large that they have almost no checks and balances to their power.

The idea that the free market is going to balance things out is a pathetic joke. The free market is the reason companies like Apple and Disney are so large that no one can stand up to them.

But Tencent is an example of things taken way too far in the other direction. A company way to closely in line with national interests and objectives.

We need a mixed system. We need rules and regulations to limit companies and keep them from growing uncontrollably, but we also need protections to keep them from becoming unofficial arms of national governments.

@Shambo Just move to china and they will own at least 50% of you. Since the most used app for payment and communication in China belongs to them.

@Gus_Campos that is assuming I'd use their app (I really don't know what kind of company they are, but I have stayed far away from smart devices and any payment apps without any difficulty so far, knowing they're all about profit, control, and power. Any company. Sure, I have just a few days ago entered an open conflict with the local government (again) and several of their business partners they sold my information to that are now trying to force me into false contracts, you could consider that "any difficulty", but so far I haven't lost any and they know I don't and won't pay any fines, taxes, fees, and their enforcers won't come here, because they know that they can only enter negotiations with me when they accept beforehand that they WILL be taxed for disturbing my peace. Insane world, where just "live and let live" mentality required such measures, or else you end up not only "owned" by a company, but also in infinite debt to them you need to work for, your rights taken away and locked behind a paywall, while denying it's slavery and calling me "invalid" (their term for someone who has a "handicap", "autism spectrum disorder" in my case, because I can't conform to their society, that is collectively insane if you ask me)

@Shambo It is almost inevitable to not use their apps if you live in China. Now that the chinese virus spread, you have to open a mini program inside wechat (chat app owned by tencent) and show your helath code to enter places. So..yeah, if you live in China, you kind of can't escape it.