Another piece of pie for Chinese conglomerate
The money continues to flow in a fortnight that has seen seemingly endless mergers and acquisitions, as Tencent has invested a minority stake in Bohemia Interactive, the Czech developer behind Arma, Ylands, and MMO survival adventure DayZ.
Bohemia is the third studio to sell stakes to Tencent in recent months, following on from the Chinese conglomerate’s recent investments in Don’t Starve‘s Klei Entertainment and Life is Strange developer Dontnod. All of these purchases were made in part to facilitate Tencent’s distribution of the respective studios’ wares in China.
“We are pleased to deepen our relationship with Tencent, one of the most significant internet companies in the world,” said Bohemia CEO Marek Spanel. “We look forward to working on our current and future generations of games with the support of a strong partner that has known us for many years and understands our unique approach to online games.”
Going forward, Bohemia will retain its management team and will continue to operate as an independent studio. Back in 2020, Bohemia closed one of its formative studios in Bratislava, in what was noted as a “mutual decision”. No doubt the cash injection from one of the biggest companies on the planet will provide the DayZ developer with a little more security for the coming years.
