Klei made the announcement today in a post where they explain why they chose Tencent and what they believe the partnership will help them achieve. Klei also mention that Chinese company Tencent helped them launch Don’t Starve Together in China in 2016 and have assisted with other Chinese launches since then, noting that players in China make up a large portion of their players. “We don’t expect significant operational changes for China or anywhere else in the world, but we do expect that this partnership will help us to better support our players in China,” they say. “We’ve been working with Tencent for years and even at points where we disagreed, they were always willing to work with us to find the best solution for everybody involved and defer to us when we felt strongly.” It’s a similar statement—about retaining creative control—to that of Splash Damage and Digital Extremes when their parent company Leyou was acquired by Tencent at the end of December. Over the years Tencent have acquired the likes of Riot Games, Funcom, Splash Damage, and Digital Extremes while buying stakes of various sizes in Epic Games, Ubisoft, Frontier Developments, Activision Blizzard, Paradox Interactive, Grinding Gear Games, and more. It may not be inherently bad, but consolidation of the games industry continues to be something we all ought to have an eye on.
