Tencent Acquires Studio Behind Don’t Starve, Mark of the Ninja

Tencent is one of the largest gaming conglomerates in the world and owns many shares in massive companies like Riot Games, Supercell, and Activision, to name a few. Despite already having such a large presence in the industry, Tencent is showing no signs of slowing down and has recently snatched up acquired another game developer.

Klei Entertainment, the studio that is likely most well known for creating games like Don’t Starve and Mark of the Ninja, has now had a majority stake of the company purchased by Tencent. The news was revealed on Klei’s official forums within the past few days by studio founder Jamie Cheng. As for the reason why this decision was made, Cheng says they felt like it would help the studio better achieve its goal of “making unique games that no one else can.”

The most important aspect of this acquisition though seems to be that not much will be changing. Klei as a whole will still be able to make its own decisions, especially in regards to the projects that the team wants to work on next. “There are some boring accounting changes that we will need to adjust to,” Cheng said. “Other than that, I will continue running the studio as before, with no changes to staffing, projects or other operations.”

And if you’re wondering why Klei chose Tencent of all companies to be acquired by, Cheng says that much of this deal has come about based on the previous work between the two parties. “We’ve been working with Tencent for years and even at points where we disagreed, they were always willing to work with us to find the best solution for everybody involved and defer to us when we felt strongly,” Cheng explained. “Tencent is the only company that we felt would let us retain the level of control that we demand.”

Klei represents an interesting addition to Tencent’s larger portfolio. Many of the other subsidiaries that Tencent tends to pursue are ones that already have highly-successful games that bring in large amounts of money. Klei’s previous games have been incredibly well-received by critics and fans alike, but they’ve also never been games that bring in an overwhelming amount of revenue. It remains to be seen what Klei does next but with Tencent now supporting the studio financially, you would imagine that it will now have the freedom to do anything that it might desire.

So how do you feel about this news? Be sure to give me your thoughts either down in the comments or over on Twitter at @MooreMan12.

[H/T IGN]