As Asian media report, the Chinese giant Tencent (LoL) has invested in Bluehole (PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds).
Update 16.8.2017: Bluehole states that Tencent has not made an investment in their company. However, the Chinese business site from which the news comes seems to stand by its sources.
Original report:
As the Chinese site “Jiemian News” reports, citing “unofficial sources,” the Chinese giant Tencent has invested in Bluehole. The exact amount and the level of shares remain unclear.
Allegedly, Tencent initially intended to fully acquire Bluehole. However, the South Korean game developer rejected the offer.
So Tencent has only taken a stake in Bluehole.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds a global hit – USA, China, Germany, Russia – all fighting for survival
Bluehole has just released the Steam hit of 2017 in Early Access with “PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.” The shooter breaks one record after another. A release on Xbox One and PS4 is also planned.
Meanwhile, the player base of PUBG is international:
- The USA has the most players with 24%.
- The Chinese account for 19%, making them the second-largest player base in PUBG.
- Germany and Russia follow in third place with 6% each.
Tencent has recently been on a shopping spree. In July, they acquired 9% of shares in the British company Frontier Developments for about 23.5 million. This is the company behind Elite Dangerous.
Bluehole was founded in 2007 and was long known as the company behind the action MMO Tera. Currently, they are mainly known as the company behind PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds.
King of Copycats Tencent incredibly successful with huge revenues
Tencent is a huge Chinese tech conglomerate that has made its fortune by implementing well-known concepts from the West in the closed Chinese market. For a long time, the CEO was regarded as “The King of Copycats.” Initially, they launched “the Chinese answer to AOL,” and now they have something like “the Chinese answer to Steam” with WeGame.
Recently, Tencent has been very successful in gaming, achieving incredibly high revenues. In 3 months, Tencent earned as much from gaming as the two Western publishers 2k Games and Ubisoft combined.
Tencent also owns shares in several notable Western companies. They now own Riot Games and thus League of Legends.
A mobile spin-off of League of Legends, “Strike of Kings,” has recently become so popular in China that the government had to take measures because they feared the youth might become addicted to the game.
