Tencent Buys Nightingale Developer

thegamer.com:

Tencent's reach is far and wide, and it has once again snapped up a promising new developer. Nightingale developer Inflexion Games has been purchased by Tencent for an undisclosed amount.

According to Games Industry.biz, original owners Improbable began looking to divest itself of Inflexion beginning last summer as it switched its business focus away from first-party game development. This left Inflexion and Nightingale in the lurch as it had originally planned to make a game using Improbable's cloud computing tech, SpatialOS.

Related: Nightingale Interview: Aaryn Flynn On Early Access, BioWare, And Building An RPG Survival Experience

It also put Inflexion in the difficult position of needing to find a new home, and fast. This might have led to an unfortunate situation where Inflexion would lose its creative independence, something that CEO Aaryn Flynn valued most after leaving BioWare and EA. Flynn told Games Industry that even though Improbable's change in direction gave him a bit of whiplash, the two parted ways on "amenable" terms.

And that largely has to do with Tencent picking up the tab. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed, but Flynn said that the deal was a win-win thanks to Tencent's track record of remaining hands-off when acquiring Western studios.

"But at the same time, we recognized in them not just the biggest game development company in the world, but a company that had vast experience in creating compelling live services and engaging player communities, and understanding exactly the culture that's necessary to go and build that," Flynn said. "And since that was a big part of our business plan with Nightingale, we got excited by that complementary expertise."

That doesn't mean the move away from