Tencent Becomes the Largest Shareholder of The Medium and Blair Witch Devs
The Chinese company Tencent has acquired 21.97% of shares in the Polish studio Bloober Team, becoming the company's largest shareholder. It is another large corporation which became interested in the creators of such games as Blair Witch or The Medium.
The Polish studio Bloober Team, creators of such games as Blair Witch and TheMedium , announced [in Polish] that Serene Century Limited, a corporation belonging to Tencent Holdings Limited, has purchased 3,881,885 shares in the company. Thus, the Chinese giant became the owner of 21.97% of votes, becoming the largest shareholder of the Krakow-based company.
As reported [in Polish] by Bankier.pl, the transaction took place on Wednesday, October 6 and was worth PLN 77.6 million (~$19 million). The shares were purchased from Rockbridge TFI, which was the only company holding such a large block of shares. If you have been following the market in recent months, this information may not come as a surprise to you. Tencent has already been suggested as a probable investor for Bloober Team. What is interesting, after the transaction was revealed, the value of the company's shares went up significantly (see the screenshot below).
This is another large company to become interested in the Polish studio. Recall that after the release of the aforementioned Blair Witch and The Medium there was some speculation that the team would be joining Xbox Game Studios on Xbox Games Pass. However, this did not happen; instead, the Polish developers signed agreements first with Konami and then with Take-Two, the publisher of the Grand Theft Auto series, among others. Now, Tencent has become the main shareholder of the studio.
It is hard to predict how all this will affect the Polish company. It seems, however, that the ambitious plans, about which its owners recently informed - becoming an industry leader in the horror game genre and achieving the stability enjoyed by giants such as Naughty Dog - have a chance to materialize. The more so as the next project of Bloober Team will probably be a new part of the Silent Hill series. Surprisingly, these rumors weren't warmly received by the players.
