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Tencent to acquire British video game company Sumo Group in $1.3 billion deal

Tencent is mostly mobile pivoted anyway, but considering that Chinese main interest is the data, I am pretty sure the games will be everywhere - with censorship of course but it is what it is. It is interesting though - chinese companies can freely operate on the west, while western companies cannot operate freely in china.

have to see how much they willing to spend for their gaming division, like budget limit or something like that
Tencent? They can spend a lot I think.

These days companies want to burn a lot of money - thus companies are overpriced yet other companies are willing to purchase.
I wonder what megaton acquisitions will happen in the near future.
 

reksveks

Member
If only the western countries had a Partnership with other countries around China aka in the Pacific in order to reduce the economic impact/domination of China...

I wonder what we would call it?
 
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McCheese

Member
Good for Sumo, they put out some real bangers and also do sterling support studio work that often goes under the radar.

On a less serious note, who are you going to main in Communist All-Star Racing?
 
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cormack12

Gold Member
Well, this seems INCREDIBLY healthy for the video games industry and popular culture in general. I'm sure nothing bad will come from state approved companies in totalitarian countries buying up vast swathes of the industry!

The future is glorious!

You wanted politics in games everyone. Now get in line to get your state sponsored copy of Spy on your neighbours!
 

Bryank75

Banned
Hermen Hulst 'there is no industry consolidation....believe me bro!, we don't need to buy any cool new studios or publishers cause we will have a few cool timed exclusives'
 
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Spacefish

Member
Why does Europe not seem to care that China is buying it completely?
Its the UK, they don't like to maintain control over anything. All the best developers and tech companies from the past few decades were bought by the Americans and shut down, this is standard practice.
 

iJudged

Banned
fucking up the industry one billion at the time
Tropic Thunder GIF
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
A lot of money for a studio where half their games are ports for older consoles or a b-tier kinds of games. Tencent must have big plans for them.
 
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Interfectum

Member
Global Capitalism. Doesn't care about politics or borders... just $$$.

The big question is, who will buy Sony first? Apple or Tencent?
 
China isn't going away. They're going to be an equal in this space, or even slightly bigger.

It is what it is. You can't just snap your fingers and make it so 1.4 billion people with a vibrant middle class don't consume any entertainment content. I was all about Shaw bros. movies and Hong Kong action flicks when I was growing up. Even a lot of early Bruce Lee movies are pro-Chinese, anti-Japanese war films. Same with Donnie Yen films, or some Jackie Chan films.

Maybe they'll have some good stuff at some point. Sumo makes good games. It's not like anyone was rushing out to buy the next Sumo product or fund their next game though.
 
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They made good games, not amazing ones but good ones. Snake Pass and the Sonic All-Stars Racing series.

Just don't mention Tiananmen Square to them.
 

Interfectum

Member
China isn't going away. They're going to be an equal in this space, or even slightly bigger.

It is what it is. You can't just snap your fingers and make it so 1.4 billion people with a vibrant middle class don't consume any entertainment content. I was all about Shaw bros. movies and Hong Kong action flicks when I was growing up. Even a lot of early Bruce Lee movies are pro-Chinese, anti-Japanese war films. Same with Donnie Yen films, or some Jackie Chan films.

Maybe they'll have some good stuff at some point. Sumo makes good games. It's not like anyone was rushing out to buy the next Sumo product or fund their next game though.
This is more of an insidious purchase than anything else. Sumo has their hands in a lot of games, now Tencent does. While MS sings about their purchases from a hilltop, Tencent slowly buying up everything under their feet. Before you know it literally every game you buy will have a piece of Tencent in it... they are almost already there anyway.
 
This is more of an insidious purchase than anything else. Sumo has their hands in a lot of games, now Tencent does. While MS sings about their purchases from a hilltop, Tencent slowly buying up everything under their feet. Before you know it literally every game you buy will have a piece of Tencent in it... they are almost already there anyway.
I guess. It is a little exaggerated. They have 5% here, 3% there.


Big ones being Epic, Riot, Sumo Digital, Dontnod, Marvelous. Basically still less than any first party stable of studios. But yeah, it's not that surprising that China is going to have 1 major gaming company on par with those.
 

Ev1L AuRoN

Member
I'm very unfortable with the way the industry is moving, I don't want to have games that always were multiplat locked into those wall gardens.
 

00_Zer0

Member
I hope they will still be able to work with Sega or create what they want. They have worked on Outrun, the Sonic All Star Racing games, and even created there own racer called Hotshot Racing. It's a really fun arcade style racer. They are an excellent developer when it comes to racing games.
 
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reksveks

Member
I think the west needs to learn from the Japanese government that protects its big companies from foreign acquisition.
Sumo Digital though ain't big, it's a small player.

Why does Europe not seem to care that China is buying it completely?
1) you have to prove that ccp is having an overwhelming influence on the companies (Alex Ma and his treatment suggests the opposite)
2) you need to work in the legal system that's in place aka look at the stupidity of the trump executive order around tiktok. Laws and its consistency matters for trade relations
3) games companies aren't structurally important and don't lead to security risks without some seriously creative thinking.

I don't like the investment funds and large monopolies but also don't like protectionism in industries that it doesn't belong in.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
Why does Europe not seem to care that China is buying it completely?
Probably because Europe, US, etc... have traditionally thought they are so strong, no Asian companies will ever be able to buy them out. And western countries have a mantra of freedom so anything goes unless it's a utility company or business that makes military gear for the gov. Japan is its own island of protectionist policies.

Fast forward to 2021, and China is getting giant. No doubt, US is still bigger but amazingly if anyone checked out where China was 20, 40, 60 years ago, they were peons long time ago.
 
What do you mean?
Basically any independent studio has to have all the middle-management and upper management jobs that are part of just running a place. Payroll, marketing, people that meet with other studios for contracts and sales, etc. Tencent has their own people for most of that, and really just needs the devs and people that make the studio run. So oftentimes people will find they're in a duplicate position that already exists at Tencent (meaning they're redundant), so they are a waste of money and get fired.
 
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