Tencent Acquires Back 4 Blood Devs, Promises Creative Independence
Tencent has acquired another studio. This time the Chinese giant decided to buy out Turtle Rock Studios, the creators of Left 4 Dead and Back 4 Blood.
Chinese corporation Tencent Holdings Limited has acquired yet another development studio. After Bloober Team, Yager, Klei Entertainment and Digital Extremes - and partly also Dontnod Entertainment and Bohemia Interactive - the corporation became interested in the devs of Left 4 Dead and Back 4 Blood, i.e. the California-based Turtle Rock Studios. In the years 2008-2010, this developer was a subsidiary of Valve.
The developers are expected to maintain their independence and ability to continue working on all current projects, including the development of the aforementioned Back 4 Blood, published by Warner Bros. The acquisition will not affect the team, which will still be led by co-founders Phil Robb and Chris Ashton. Steve Goldstein, the current CEO of Turtle Rock Studios, commented on the situation as follows (via IGN):
"We are looking forward to joining the Tencent family of studios. Outstanding partners, global reach, deep gaming expertise and unprecedented support will help us create the ambitious productions we dream of while allowing us to maintain our autonomy and independence."
Tencent regularly buys out developer studios. In addition to those mentioned at the beginning of this news, this year the Chinese acquired Sumo Group (the devs of Sackboy: The Great Adventure) and Wake Up Interactive (which includes Soleil, the team responsible for Naruto to Boruto: Shinobi Striker ). It is worth noting that the Polish team 1C Entertainment and Crytek were also in the company's purchase plans. These acquisitions are still not out of the question, because - as you can see - Tencent does not stop this type of activities even after it lost billions of dollars as a result of the drop in the value of its shares on the stock exchange, which was caused by the tightening of China's social policy regarding video games.
