Playtonic Announces Tencent Investment And Major Expansion Plans

Screw Tencent. That is all.

Echo that, not buying any of their games.

Well then.
RIP.

Poof, bye. Not getting involved with Tencent, thanks for the heads up 😂

I will still support Playtonic.

The parroting of "Tencent bad" rhetoric feels increasingly meaningless. I have yet to see an explanation of why "Tencent bad" that isn't mired in sinophobia and/or pearl-clutching.
I'm playing games with Tencent branding on them, having a good time with them, my identity isn't stolen, and I'm not throwing money at gacha gambling. So if there is a problem here, I'm really not getting any good explanations or reasoning as to what that is.

Crazy is right.

Capital B must be proud; he's won! Yooka and Laylee got their bee-hinds kicked due to Tencent.

Yeah I’m not touching anything by this developer now I know Tencent own a stake in them. So sad to see them buying into everyone.

Oh Dear, looks like this is going to be a backlash commentary on this news.
Poor Playtonic, they must be desperate for money after expansion especially money from them.

@TimGibsonPBS Yet you’re commenting this on a Nintendo news outlet, when Tencent have directly worked directly with Nintendo.

Nope, I don't think they have credibility any longer.
@KyleOctopus
We've seen them play ball in order to bring products to China, I cannot find significant.

insert generic Tencent bad comment

Awesome. Not sure how I feel about Tencent being the company that is investing in them, but Playtonic and their publishing arm is one of the brightest new stars in the gaming space over the last several years. I'd love to see them continue to succeed and expand their operations.

The true return of Rare is upon us!

These people need an income/investment. If you're not giving it to them, then why complain?!

@CactusMan
Do you mean other than there being an article every week about Tencent acquiring a minority/majority stake in a videogame company?

Oh no, thats a sad news.

Thankfully a minority stake. A rare misstep from Playtonic though, Tencent are crazy dodgy.

@CharlieGirl Sinophobia?
Boycotting a company that is a direct arm of a government that operates, among many other things, concentration and reeducation camps to cleanse the country of muslims or is currently removing Queer depictions in media is how exactly "a sentiment against Chinese people and culture"?
I mean, if that stuff is "pearl clutching" to you, i'd advise some soul searching...

Ghislaine Maxwell is a Nintendo investor. But y'all don't seem to care about that 🤔🤔

@AzzyC I'd say there's a difference between a rotten individual and a fascistic government. But that might just be me...

For the people saying they are not going to buy nothing from them, remember that if you want to be consistent, you won't be able to buy almost anything.

@CharlieGirl - Similar practice is made when certain people are toxic within a company. People stop supporting the company over that one person and/or event.

It just so happens that it's an entire governmental wing of a country that practices unethical treatments upon swaths of others that CONTROL an investment firm that buys these companies.

That, and China is on an economic downturn, which makes many of these purchases look like corporate hostage situations.

@Einherjar Gonna call a [citation needed] for that one. There's a difference between a nationalized company and a "direct arm of the government."

SERIOUSLY? After how Microsoft killed Rare, actual ex-Rare developers decided to join an even EVILER company? Did they seriously learn NOTHING?

@CharlieGirl Any bad person will take advantage of negative press to push their own phobic agenda but if you simply see that many people don't like the company, just use a simple google search and dig into it yourself.

It's pretty brash to brand thousands of people as sinophobic when this has always been against the CCP themselves, not chinese people. There are chinese devs you know that have acclaimed praise for their work as they also don't have ties to Tencent to public knowledge whilst showing high effort in their things.

@CactusMan You may think that's comparable but food and power are necessities to the modern lifestyle. It's a bit easier to be more selective of your support when the company concerns entertainment.
This is literally the "we should improve society somewhat" meme, please don't be that "yet you participate in it, I am very intelligent" person.

Maybe one day they will make a good game.

@Kyranosaurus Telling someone to "just do a google search" does nothing to tell someone about a topic. One could go so far as to say telling someone to "just do a google search" portrays a lack of knowledge about said topic.

To all the people not buying anymore, don't forget to don' buy any EA, Ubisoft, Platinum games, etc etc etc anymore, no Bayonetta for u.

Also don't watch Godzilla movies and multiple others.

All funded by Tencent!

@Hinade "don't forget to don' buy any EA, Ubisoft, Platinum games... ...Also don't watch Godzilla movies and multiple others."

Will do!

@CharlieGirl Oh please...
Since when is it a secret that the BAT (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent) have become the backbone of many of the CCP's operations, like further developing their surveillance state.
Or the CIA investigation reporting that Tencent got their seed capital from the MSS (China's Secret Police) to work on China's firewall (https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/12/23/china-tech-giants-process-stolen-data-spy-agencies/)

@CactusMan "What are ´´Chinese people´?"
Are you attempting to troll here?
The population of China, the people, in contrast to its government, the political organisation.

Why couldn't Nintendo invest in them instead? Would have been so much better. Nintendo needs another Rare.

@CactusMan Nice attempt at trolling but I'm sure you don't actually need me to tell you.
I don't want to even pretend you lack that information, that's just silly.

Such a missed opportunity Nintendo!

Very sad news.
They really must be desperate for funds...

@CactusMan You're entirely missing the point that no matter who considers who "chinese", that the hostility is towards the CCP, so I'm not actually sure why clarifying any of that is important in this context because as far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter who's actually in that identified group. We're all humans.
So your curiosity is quite literally derailing the topic at hand unless you want to make the argument that I don't think that way somehow?

wonderful, Tencent

They got burnt once with a similar deal they better be careful.

Well, I backed Yooka Kaylee and was extremely disappointed by it after playing that mediocre mess. Never bought a game from them again, and now this is the final nail in the coffin.

I guess Rareware is dead in every possible way now. The company itself is a hollow shell of its former self and all the previous employees are gone. And now, the company made up of previous employees is mediocre, soulless sell-outs. Guess we at least all have the classic titles right?

@Einherjar Chinaphobe! Work camps and genocide are just a cultural thing!

@BAN It pretty much is what many of these comments read like, sadly.
But i guess it's an easy and convenient coping mechanism instead of realizing that we're living in a world where everyone's turning a blind eye to a fascist state because they won at the money game...
So i can't really blame anyone either.

I'm pretty sure no one is against Tencent for being ethnically Chinese. The opposition to Tencent is because they are more or less an arm of the Chinese Communist Party.

@CharlieGirl if you haven’t seen like the past 20 articles of Tencent meddling with other studios in just the past 3 months…. Then no one will convince you of the obvious problem that is right there in front of your eyes.

@meijin3 Nailed it. The CCP has no problem letting us fund our own demise.

@CharlieGirl It's just Xenophobia against Chinese companies.

@fafonio Investing and meddling are two different things.

I'm wary of any Chinese investment in anything these days, sorry.

Damn Tencent must have invested into half of the whole industry by now. Hope this helps Playtonic expand on their vision.

@CharlieGirl purchasing a minority stake is not the same type of investing as buying stock. They will now take part in the board of operations and decision making, thus, meddling. In literal terms they bought a minor part of the studio, it’s not just an “investment”. Though Playtoinc says they have guarantees of creative and IP control, not all the studios have had those opportunities. But if you can’t see that these sudden unusual Tencent investing blowouts we’ve had in the last couple of months mean that Tencent’s decision making will be all over the place in a couple of years, well, then that’s on you.

Would you like it if EA started buying stakes in every studio from now on? Just think about it a minute and imagine that world.

It’s not sinophobia and that shouldn’t be used as an excuse to defend Tencent. We have the same levels of disgust and worry when a western company like Microsoft or EA do the same.

Another problem that worries everyone is that we’ve been hearing from this mega corporation’s buyouts A LOT recently.

Here’s a little info: “ In 2020, Tencent had invested in over 800 companies across the world.[289] During 2012 and 2019, Tencent has invested from minority stakes to majority stakes in world-wide-famous game companies such as Riot Games, Epic Games, Activision Blizzard, SuperCell, Bluehole.[296] While this type of investment can consistently benefit Tencent, it might not benefit the invested companies.”

And don’t let me get started about their hostile takeover attempts.

And here’s a little outdated article if you want to know which companies they have bought participations in: https://www.pcgamer.com/every-game-company-that-tencent-has-invested-in/

@CharlieGirl Nobody should do the research for you. You have to present an argument and convince the readers why your thoughts matter or are agreeable... and so far your arguments are not very convincing.

@Madao It will keep them functioning but now they will have to comply with any mandates Tencent may have going forward.

@fafonio Thank you for broaching the subject with tact. You're right, with this information I see that Tencent have a troubled history (to say the least).

The thing that keeps me from wanting to say "forget Playtonic then" is that they will retain their IP and creative rights. Which, if that's how other investments go, okay fine. It's when the investors start making moves to change the company proceedings that I get alarmed.

@CharlieGirl
Nice Avatar. She's the reason I renamed myself Chloe.

@CharlieGirl You can start by reading the controversies section on their Wikipedia page. While you're at it, please just read the definition of totalitarianism and realize there's no such thing as a Chinese company that doesn't have to answer to their government.

@CharlieGirl ohh no... by no means lets forget about Playtonic, I love the guys, they are the remnants of RARE. We shouldn't punish them because of Tencent. Maybe that's why I'm a bit alarmed by this, Tencent has the money to push these guys to new heights with their talent.... but from all the companies that could have bougth a minority stake from them, this one is the worst. But as I read on another article, they supposedly gave them guarantees that they will keep their creativity and IP rights ........ lets see if Tencent respects that. (Platinum is in the same position, but we haven't felt yet the effects of that investment)

Let's just hope it doesn't affect them too much in the long run. And yeah, sorry if on some sentences it didn't felt I approached our discussion with tact, English is my second language so I try to double check and sometimes it doesn't come off as I want to .

@Einherjar Yep. I’m constantly baffled by the mental gymnastics people of progressive persuasions put themselves through to reach the conclusion that China deserves to be defended by them. Beyond their human rights atrocities, this country is having its way with the environment, and they’re responsible for the pandemic we’ve all been suffering through, which has killed millions of people and ruined economies.

Idk maybe it just comes down to communism. A lot of people really seem to think it’s cool these days and will defend it no matter what.

Tencent deserves the shade, but how is it we look past EA. How many companies has EA bought, forced them to do things the way EA wants, and then shut them down? There are a lot of companies acquiring companies, and most of it doesn't end well.

@BAN I wouldn't quite agree with the pandemic part, as it has put China through the ringer as well. There are a lot of other factors playing into it to give the CCP the solitary blame for it.

But there's plenty of atrocities left that get brushed under the rug and conveniently brushed off with -isms and -phobias.
And it truly makes you think if this is how 1933 worked as well.
If suddenly, there were a lot of "Germanophobes" out there...

Same with all the "But what about the others?"
Yes, what about them? Let's talk again when EA is supporting a cultural genocide...
EA are premium scumbags, peak turbo-capitalists...but that's about it.
They are no ActiBlizz, committing small scale human rights infringements AND protecting the afforementioned regime (The Blitzchung controversy).

Yes, i also avoid anything ActiBlizz touches like the plague.
And it's the only thing i can do. I'm one insignificant person with a hobby, and the only voice i have is "If you are in cahoots with monster like that, you won't see my money".

Really happy about this.
Hope they continue to grow and release even more games in the future.

This is pretty irresponsible reporting. No mention of Tencent's concerning ties to the CCP or, you know, anything about Blitzchung?

@BAN I agree, seen a number of these kinda people on this site. They usually come out of the woodwork on rage bait articles. History isn't their strong suit.

@Einherjar I never said China weren’t affected by covid, but they’re owners of a majority stake in the genesis of it. And they haven’t been held accountable for it by anyone. And more infuriating than that is the breathless defending western leftists provide them for it, labeling anyone willing to so much as question China’s role in covid a racist/xenophobe/Chinaphobe.

But you’re right. We live in insane times, where the side people take is the one that makes the most noise, and history and morality are completely secondary to fitting in and feeling empowered by everyone that’s on the same side as you.

@Noxide Minority stake owners cannot enact mandates.

@CharlieGirl not that I agree with whatever the narrative around tencent is, but weren't you literally the one who said "Google searches are fast, and really helpful in making informed decisions" in response to being asked about chris pratt, telling others to search what he did when asked on another article shortly before? i don't know how high of a ground you can take about being told to google here

Well it was a good run Playtonic, liked your games, but I'll take my dollars elsewhere in the future, enjoy your genocide money.

@CharlieGirl You with the phobias.

@Anachronism Wikipedia is the worst place to find info...
You ever write an essay in English class?

@Bermanator Wikipedia is the result of an army of nerds who get a dopamine rush from correcting people constantly trying to one-up each other. Teachers don't trust it because half of them have been doing their jobs since before home computers were ubiquitous, but unlike nearly everyone else on the internet, they actually do a decent job of citing their sources, so if you don't trust the website itself, you can just check where they get the information from.