Tencent Acquires the Devs of Spec Ops: The Line

Chinese tech giant Tencent has acquired a majority stake in German studio Yager, which is responsible for the iconic and award-winning Spec Ops: The Line. The developer is currently working on online shooter called The Cycle.

Chinese tech conglomerate Tencent has been investing heavily in the gaming industry. We regularly hear about how the corporation buys publishing companies, start-ups and development studios. Just as often, it also provides financial support or establishes close cooperation with large companies such as Square Enix. The latest acquisition of the Chinese is the Berlin-based studio Yager Development. Tencent has just become its majority shareholder.

The German developer, active on the market since 1999, is best known for its third-person shooter Spec Ops: The Line, which was released nine years ago on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and PC. The game quickly gained iconic status mainly due to its interesting storyline (loosely based on the novel Heart of Darkness) which criticizes the conventions and tropes of typical military shooters. Unfortunately, the game never achieved great financial success and after breaking off cooperation with the publisher 2K Games, the team took up other projects.

For the past two years, Yager has been working on a network FPS called The Cycle, which is being gradually developed on Epic Games Store since 2019. Last year, the game's potential encouraged Tencent to make a small investment in the studio, which turned into a majority acquisition over the next several months. Developers claim that the support they received from the Chinese will secure their jobs for a long time and will enable them to finish other, yet unannounced projects.