Platinum Games Takes Investment from Tencent

Bayonetta developer Platinum Games recently announced partnership with Chinese media giant Tencent.

Largely known for their work on action games like Bayonetta series and NieR: Automata, Japanese video game developer Platinum Games has two more upcoming major releases; Babylon's Fall and Bayonetta 3 set to arrive on 2020.

Most recently, company CEO and president Kenichi Sato has came out announcing a new partnership with Tencent that involves huge influx of cash but has claimed that it wouldn't affect their independence in game making.

platinum games tencent capital investment 2020 video game developer bayonetta
Platinum Games Takes Investment from Tencent

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From early 2000s, Tencent got involved in video game market and it has become a big-name within industry by 2018. One of their biggest moves includes getting ownership of League of Legends creator/developer Riot Games.

Being a major Chinese internet and media company, Tencent has large stakes in high profile publishers like Blizzard Entertainment, Epic Games and Ubisoft. Looking forward to expand their reach, they now have invested in a new studio.

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In his statement on official website, Kenichi Sato said what people can expect from this partnership.

This partnership has no effect on the independence of our company, and we will continue operations under our current corporate structure. We hope to use this capital to strengthen our foundation as a business and expand from game development into exploring self-publishing.

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For some time, Platinum intended to expand their business further from development and wanted to self-publish two of their brand-new IPs. With recent capital investment from Tencent, they can most likely pursue that vision.

In past, the developer has struggled financially for a period of time until they were saved by unprecedented success of NieR: Automata. So, this affiliation can at least offer them financial stability and let focus on more creative work.

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In recent years, companies like NetEase and Tencent gaining more influence in games industry is actually worrying as they tend to go after live-service style monetization but we can really get some good games if Platinum can keep their integrity.

Whether or not Platinum Games can possibly go ahead independently from here on under a new corporate structure is still unsure because Tencent won't invest a large sum of money without having some interest of their own.
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