Devs of DayZ and Arma 3 Acquired by Tencent [Updated: Bohemia Denies]
According to The Information, the Chinese company Tencent spent $260 million to buy a majority stake in Bohemia Interactive. Thus, the creators of DayZ or the Arma series joined such companies as Epic Games or Supercell.
Update
Petr Polácek, head of marketing at Bohemia Interactive, officially denied (via Hospodárské noviny) that Tencent bought the majority stake in the studio. He stresses that the Czech team remains independent and does not know where the information about their acquisition came from. The Chinese giant has not yet issued any statement on the matter.
The original message
Tencent continues its offensive in the video game market. Recently, it has financially supported the development of the System Shock brand, especially the development of its third part, prepared by OtherSide Entertainment, and now, according to The Information (via PC Gamer), the company decided to purchase a majority stake (specifically 70-80%) in the Czech studio Bohemia Interactive. The Chinese giant was to allocate 260 million dollars for it.
According to well-known analyst Daniel Ahmad, Tencent decided for the investment to compete with another Chinese tycoon, NetEase, the local distributor of Minecraft in China. The company led by Ma Huateng and Martin Lau needed some items that could fill a gap in their catalogue when it comes to sandbox PC games. Apparently, its owners concluded that games such as DayZ and Arma III were perfect for this.
We would like to remind that Tencent also owns a large part of shares in such studios as Epic Games, Supercell (dealing with mobile productions) and Grinding Gear Games (creators of Path of Exile). In addition, the company has full control over Funcom, Riot Games and Sharkmob. Which company will become the next on target of the Chinese giant? We will see about that in the future.
