Tencent Buys A Stake In Yet Another Game Developer

Chinese internet giant Tencent continues its push into the world of video games. The company has acquired a "major stake" in the Swedish game developer, 10 Chambers, a studio founded in 2015 by members of the Payday development team that released the sci-fi FPS GTFO as their first game in December 2019.

10 Chambers creative director Ulf Andersson said in a statement that Tencent is the right partner to help the company reach "new heights."

"As we're closing in on six years of development of GTFO, we've realized that our ambitious long-term vision for our studio will need more muscle," Andersson said. "We needed to find a partner that gives us the creative freedom to reach these new heights, while at the same time support our long-term commitment to the GTFO community. For the future of the studio as a whole; it makes it even more exciting."

10 Chambers chief strategy officer Oscar J-T Holm said the studio will look to expand in terms of hiring. The extra resources from the Tencent investment will allow GTFO to become an "even more terrifying experience," Holm said.

For its part, Tencent Games vice president Eddie Chan said, "We are delighted to partner with the creative talents of 10 Chambers and look forward to supporting long-term development of the studio to achieve their vision in the co-op FPS genre."

The financial terms of Tencent's investment into 10 Chambers were not disclosed. Whatever the case, 10 Chambers becomes just the latest game developer to receive investment from Tencent.

Tencent owns League of Legends developer Riot Games and Path of Exile studio Grinding Gear. Additionally, Tencent paid $8.6 billion to acquire Clash of Clans developer Supercell in the largest video game acquisition in history.

Tencent also has minority investments in Epic Games, Bluehole, Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Platinum Games, Paradox, and Funcom.

In the US, the Trump administration is reportedly reaching out to Tencent's US companies to ask them to send over details on their data-security systems regarding how they handle the personal data of their American users.