Tencent Acquires Small Stake in Remedy Entertainment

Tencent Holdings Ltd. has acquired a small portion of Remedy Entertainment, the developer behind Alan Wake, Quantum Break, and the critically well-received Control. Although the conglomerate company did not purchase the majority stake, in this case, Tencent continues to add its portfolio.

Tencent is a Chinese and multinational conglomerate holding company that was founded in 1998. Although relatively young, the company is believed to be worth over $500 billion. A part of this is thanks to the constant acquisitions that the technology company makes, like Tencent's majority stake purchase of Don't Starve developer Klei Entertainment. The most recent example is Tencent taking a slice of Remedy Entertainment's pie.

According to Gamesindustry.biz, Tencent has acquired 500,000 shares in Remedy Entertainment, which is 3.8%. Tencent was sold the shares by Accendo Capital, which still holds 1.8 million shares of Remedy, a remaining 14%. Remedy was informed of the sale after it went down.

Fans should know that Tencent should not have any decision-making based on this small acquisition. This is purely a financial investment for Tencent. According to Remedy Entertainment's CEO Tera Virtala, the developer is happy to know that Tencent would decide to invest in Remedy.

Tencent has made massive majority acquisitions in the past. The company has 100 percent of Riot Games, 40 percent of Epic Games, 11.5 percent of PUBG, it owns Leyou (and all of its subsidiaries), and more. Tencent seems to pick and choose between the moves in which it has decision-making power and ones that are purely financial and nothing else. The small purchase of just a few shares of Remedy make the acquisition just a financial one at this point in time.

Remedy Entertainment had its best year yet in 2020, even though it did not release a brand new game. The Finnish game developer used the success of Control and previous games to post an operating profit of $15.9 million. Control was added to Xbox Game Pass in 2020, a Nintendo Switch version of the game was ported, expansions were brought to the game, and more--and all of these added up to create a hugely successful year for the company.

It makes sense that Tencent would want to buy in on a small piece of Remedy Entertainment. In addition, there are hopes that the developer has a lot in store for the coming months and beyond. E3 is just around the corner. And whether it be more Control, Alan Wake 2, CrossfireX, or something else entirely, many are expecting exciting news from Remedy during the gaming convention.

Remedy Entertainment has been making quite the name for itself in the gaming world, with Control being a massive hit back in 2019, nominated for numerous Game of the Year Awards. Fans of the psychological action thriller were treated even further with the launch of Control's DLC expansions, one of which connects this title to Remedy's previous IP Alan Wake. With that franchise brought back into the spotlight, rumors have begun circulating that Remedy has bigger plans for Mr. Wake in the future, with a potential full blown sequel to the original game.