The video game acquisitions just keep coming. First Xbox was set to acquire Activision Blizzard for a nearly $70 billion, then PlayStation moved in to scoop up Bungie for $3.6 billion. Tencent is no stranger to big purchases either, and it just added brought another company under its wing.
Polish publisher 1C Entertainment has been fully acquired — the deal closed in November of last year according to a press release. 1CE is known for publishing the likes of King’s Bounty, Men of War, and Space Rangers, and its subsidiary QLOC has some killer credits under its belt. QLOC handled the Dark Souls remaster, and it’s also supported the development of other big series like Devil May Cry and Resident Evil. It’s another in a long list of acquisitions for the China-based Tencent: it picked up Back 4 Blood developer Turtle Rock Studios in December 2021 and Nightingale developer Inflexion games just a few days before this QLOC acquisition was announced.
Mentioning Tencent’s location serves a purpose here — 1CE is Polish, while its parent company is Russian. Tencent did not acquire the latter, and given the current Russia-Ukraine situation, that’s an important distinction. The game industry has called for action as a result of the Russian invasion, with several Ukrainian developers calling for a withdrawal.
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