Tencent Buys Shares of Life is Strange Devs
Dontnod Entertainment has signed an agreement with Tencent, which acquire a stake in the French studio. This is another investment of the Chinese giant among Western game developers.
Tencent has long made it clear how serious it is about its "invasion" of the West. If the recent acquisitions of the Chinese company were not a clear enough declaration, today's announcement should dispel any doubts about its plans. Tencent has announced a partnership with Dontnod Entertainment, the devs of Life is Strange, Vampyr and Tell Me Why (via Actusnews Wire).
Under the signed agreement, the company bought a minority stake in the studio, worth 30 million euros, which will enable the developers to work on more projects. Moreover, Tencent will help Dontnod in its expansion into Chinese and mobile markets, probably by making the developer's games available on its own platform instead of on heavily truncated domestic versions of Steam, App Store etc.
Of course, Tencent will not be able to exert more pressure on Dontnod Entertainment. Nevertheless, this is another investment of the Chinese company in a well-known Western developer in recent weeks. The fact is that the company has already shown considerable activity in this regard even before that. Among the 31 teams in which Tencent invested in 2020 (via Niko Partners) were also Funcom and PlatinumGames, among others. Add to that the company's actions this year and you can see how serious it is about expanding into the West.
