“The funds raised will be used primarily to finance the ramp-up of Dontnod’s strategy to develop new self-published intellectual properties worldwide on PC, consoles and mobile platforms and thus make the most of positive trends within the industry to renowned and original game creators like Dontnod “, says a press release from Dontnod.
In terms of what this new series will look like, nobody knows, although it can be assumed that it is in the style of games that Dontnod has continued to make over the years, such as Life Is Strange, Tell Me Why and Twin Mirror. These are games based on third-person narratives, in which the player makes choices that affect the outcome of the stories and solve small puzzles along the way.
The purchase of Tencent is part of a total capital increase of € 40 million that comes through an accelerated binding process, according to Dontnod. The studio also announced a “simultaneous signing of a commercial cooperation agreement with Tencent”.“We are delighted to welcome Tencent as an investor in Dontnod,” said Dontnod President and CEO Oskar Guilbert. “This is a real expression of confidence from an important leader in online games, who is behind a series of success stories and has invested in several leading companies in the video game industry. Through this partnership, Dontnod is perfectly positioned to take advantage the growth drivers in the video game industry, particularly in China and on mobile platforms, in cooperation with an industry leader. The capital increase announced today will allow us to step up and drive the implementation of our development plan, which aims to capture more value from our original creators by publishing more games on their own. “
While waiting for whatever this new franchise is, check out our thoughts on the last two Dontnod games in IGN’s Tell Me Why analysis and Twin Mirror analysis. Read this story about a new narrative survival game being developed by a Dontnod cofounder’s new studio after that.
Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and creator of guides for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.