Infographic: The Chinese Takeover Of Western Game Studios
In the last couple of years it's become apparent that Chinese companies have their eyes on Western game studios: Jagex (Runescape) was bought by a Chinese mining company, Riot Games (League of Legends) is owned by Tencent, and we discovered that Snail Games scooped up Studio Wildcard (Ark: Survival Evolved). Back in 2016, analytics firm Superdata Research predicted that "Chinese companies will scoop up 1-2 western publishers a month from here on."
It can be tough to keep track of who owns what, so we've compiled an infographic explaining the major purchases; scroll down just a bit. What you'll notice is that many Chinese companies are not involved in the technology sector, but exist in other industries such as farming or mining, and are expanding into video games by scooping up Western studios. And they show no sign of slowing down.
If you want some of the surprising highlights, Tencent owns not just Riot, but also 40% of Epic Games and 84% of Supercell (Clash of Clans). Meanwhile Leyou Technologies (a poultry and farm distributor) owns 96% of Digital Extremes (Warframe) and Splash Damage (Dirty Bomb and Wolfenstein).
Are you surprised by any of of the studios listed below? Or are you already in the know. What major studio will be bought by a Chinese company next? Maybe Tencent is looking over Blizzard.
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From Mega Man II to Ape Escape, I've been playing games for as long as I can remember. I've spent months killing porings in Ragnarok Online and more recently lived a second life in Eve Online. I usually play as gUMBY, gUMBLEoni, or gUMBLes in-game.
