Tencent to acquire majority shares in Dying Light dev Techland

Techland announced today that Chinese company Tencent is about to become its majority shareholder. The Polish studio will retain ownership of its intellectual property, presumably including the Dying Light series, as well as its creative freedom.

This is far from the first time Tencent has invested in a game studio. In the past few years, the company has acquired Sumo Digital, Inflexion and Turtle Rock Studios, as well as majority shareholdings in Wakeup Interactive and Tequila Works. It’s also developing several games under its in-house Level Infinite brand.

Techland founder and CEO Paweł Marchewka announced the acquisition, saying, “Teaming up with Tencent will allow us to move full speed ahead with the execution of the vision for our games. We have chosen an ally who has already partnered with some of the world’s finest video game companies and helped them reach new heights while respecting their ways of doing things.” He added that he will remain as CEO.

At present, Techland is working on a new, unnamed fantasy RPG, and Marchewka said it’s “already shaping up to become something truly special, and the goal here is to make sure it will live up to the expectations for our first new IP in almost a decade.” He also added that the developer had dreams of transforming Dying Light into “the ultimate zombie game experience … with multiple astonishing adventures and pushing the boundaries of solo and online modes to a totally new level.”

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