Features & News

Tencent makes strategic investment in Epic Games

June 19, 2012, Author: Wayne Morgan

Tencent, one of China’s leading internet service portals, have agreed to acquire a minority stake in Epic Games.

Following this agreement, Epic will still continue to operate independently. Terms of the agreement have not been disclosed but the deal is expected to be signed off within one month. This will still allow Epic Games to press forward, looking to further expand its game franchise across multiple platforms.

Epic Games have over 20 years experience in the game industry and are well respected for bringing many game titles to players including the Gears of War series of games as well as the award winning Unreal Engine that has been used in games such as Mass Effect 3, Batman Arkham City and games like Infinity Blade released on iOS.

Tencent, founded in 1998, have provided China with one of the leading Internet platforms in China – QQ (QQ Instant Messenger), QQ.com, QQ Games, Qzone, 3g.QQ.com, SoSo, PaiPai and Tenpay – These have brought together China’s largest Internet community to meet the various needs of Internet users including communication, information, entertainment, e-commerce and others. The development of Tencent has profoundly influenced the ways hundreds of millions of Internet users communicate with one another as well as their lifestyles. It also brings possibilities of a wider range of applications to the China’s Internet industry.

It’s very interesting to see a company like Tencent make an investment into Epic Games. Tencent are no stranger to games, having used the Unreal Engine in previous projects. David Wallerstein, Senior Executive Vice President of Tencent, was quoted as saying

“We’ve developed a huge amount of respect for the Epic team for many years now, as dedicated players of Epic’s games and as licensees of Epic’s Unreal Engine technology. Epic’s deep commitment to quality across all of its games and technologies inspires us. They’ve been raising expectations in gaming for two decades now and they’re just getting started.”

An unexpected, but equally fascinating, partnership. It’s going to be interesting watching both parties coexist in the future.

You can view the full press release right here