After a massive year of acquisitions and investments in 2020, Chinese internet company Tencent bought another prominent game studio.
It was confirmed on Friday that Tencent acquired Klei, the developers of Shank and Don’t Starve. Klei confirmed the purchase in a post on his forums.
“I want to take a moment to announce that we have agreed to negotiate with Tencent to buy a majority stake in Klei Entertainment,” said the studio. “As part of this agreement, Klei maintains full autonomy of creation and operations in all aspects of the studio, including projects, talents and more.”
As for what will change, founder Jamie Cheng said he will continue to run the studio and that there will be no changes to the team, projects and operations, although there are some “boring accounting changes”.
Cheng said he accepted the purchase so that he and his team don’t have to worry about finding new projects and publishers to keep the lights on.
“My desire is to allow people to do their best creative work, to learn and grow, not to have to worry about finances and to be able to enjoy life outside the studio. That hasn’t changed,” he said. “This partnership helps us to navigate an ever-changing industry and helps us focus on what we do best: creating unique experiences that no one else can do.”
Klei and Tencent were already working together, as Tencent partnered with the studio to launch Don’t Starve Together in China on Tencent’s WeGame platform. Klei and Tencent are also working together on Don’t Starve: Newhome for mobile.
Cheng said Klei is happy to sign with Tencent because the company will allow the studio to “maintain the level of control we demand”.
“We have worked with Tencent for years and, even where we disagreed, they were always willing to work with us to find the best solution for everyone involved and postpone when we felt strongest,” said Cheng.
A report by Niko Partners showed that Tencent did 31 deals in 2020 related to investments in the gaming industry, which is three times more deals than in 2019. Its biggest deal was the purchase of $ 1.5 billion from Leyou, parent company of Warframe developer Digital Extremes.
Some of Tencent’s other moves in 2020 included investing – but not buying immediately – the Japanese studio Platinum Games. Tencent also acquired developer Conan Funcom and purchased the GTFO 10 Chambers studio.
Tencent now owns or invests in a large number of gaming companies. She owns Riot (League of Legends), Grinding Gear Games (Path of Exile) and Supercell (Clash of Clans), while Tencent also owns a part of the Fortnite Epic Games studio. Tencent also has minority investments in Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard and Bluehole.