Arma and DayZ dev Bohemia insists it will continue to operate independently after Tencent investment
Lone wolf.
Tencent has continued its investment spree, this time in Arma and DayZ studio Bohemia.
The Chinese mega corp has acquired a minority stake in Bohemia Interactive, which is based in the Czech Republic. Terms of the investment were not disclosed.
Bohemia boss Marek Španěl insisted his company will continue to operate independently and be led by the existing management team. The initial plan is to bring Bohemia's PC and mobile sandbox creation platform Ylands to Chinese players.
"We are pleased to deepen our relationship with Tencent, one of the most significant internet companies in the world," Španěl said. "We look forward to working on our current and future generations of games with the support of a strong partner that has known us for many years and understands our unique approach to online games."
Bohemia is home to more than 300 staff working on Arma 3, DayZ, Ylands, Vigor, and various other projects.
Tencent is the world's largest video game company in terms of revenue, with significant stakes in a number of western video game publishers, such as League of Legends maker Riot, Clash of Clans studio Supercell, and Fortnite developer Epic Games.
In January 2021 Don't Starve developer Klei Entertainment insisted it "retains full autonomy" after Tencent bought a majority stake in the company.
And in December 2020, Tencent became Warframe developer Digital Extremes' parent company after it bought the studio's previous owner, Hong Kong video game company Leyou.
Tencent has been the subject of controversy over the years, with its influence questioned. In October 2019, Blizzard came under fire for banning and revoking the prize money of Hong Kong Hearthstone tournament winner Ng Wai Chung - aka Blitzchung - who used his post-match victory interview to issue a statement of support for Hong Kong protestors. In the face of a public backlash, Blizzard eventually partially rescinded the punishment. Tencent has a five per cent stake in Activision Blizzard.