Tencent set to acquire Dying Light studio Techland

theverge.com:

By Ash Parrish, a reporter who has covered the business, culture, and communities of video games for seven years. Previously, she worked at Kotaku.

Tencent, the billion-dollar Chinese holding company that owns either wholly or in part game studios like Riot Games, Epic Games, and many others, is in the process of adding another studio to its long list of subsidiaries — Techland.

CEO Pawel Marchewka announced the news, saying, “Teaming up with Tencent will allow us to move full speed ahead with the execution of the vision for our games.”

Techland is a Polish studio known for its zombie survival games, including the Dying Light and Dead Island series. Last year, after a lengthy delay, the studio released the highly anticipated sequel to Dying Light, Dying Light 2: Stay Human,to decent reviews.

Also last year, The Gamer reported on internal struggles at Techland, reporting that 20 employees, roughly 5 percent of its workforce, departed the company over the course of two months.

With this new acquisition by Tencent, however, Techland’s CEO believes the “best is yet to come” for the company.

Tencent is one the largest video game companies in the world and seemingly has no problem with spending the cash necessary to keep it on that list. Tencent’s portfolio contains some of the biggest money-making games in the world, including Honor of Kings, Call of Duty: Mobile, and PUBG Mobile.

While the acquisition may seem like good news for Techland right now, recent news may indicate the trend of gobbling up game studios isn’t always panning out in the long run. Last month, Embracer Group, the Swedish company that also owns a wealth of studios, including Gearbox Entertainment and Crystal Dynamics, announced that it would pause