China's Tencent has stepped up in terms of hailing and new IP

Tencent continues its active expansion in foreign markets. In a few days, it became known about three steps of the company aimed at developing outside of its native Chinese market.

1. Tencent has acquired the rights to System Shock 3 and 4

Yesterday, information was confirmed that the OtherSide Entertainment game studio, which has lost almost all of its staff, including the marketing director, has transferred the rights to develop and publish System Shock 3 and 4 to a Chinese company.

System Shock 3
From the information available on the web, it is unclear whether Tencent is going to finance the development of games within OtherSide or will transfer it to another studio.

The wording is too vague.

The funny thing is: the IP directly on the System Shock universe did not fall into the hands of Tencent. Only the rights to parts 3 and 4. The franchise itself belongs to the American Nightdive Studios, which is currently preparing a remake of the original System Shock, whose release took place in 1994.

For Tencent, the current purchase is an opportunity to gain a foothold in the empty immersive sims market, where Prey was last noted in 2017. The project did not become a commercial blockbuster, but gained cult status in the niche previously formed by the System Shock series.

2. Tencent is expanding its studio in the USA, which is now headed by the former director of Battlefield Hardline

The Chinese giant has a daughter engaged in development — TiMi Studios. She was responsible for creating Honor of Kings and Call of Duty: Mobile. She has had her own studio in Los Angeles for a long time, but since January she has been actively expanding it. The biggest hairing happened just the other day.

Scott Warner

TiMi Studios took Scott Warner as head of the studio.

This is a very experienced designer and top manager. Scott started out as a game designer for Icewind Dale and Planescape:Torment, then was responsible for the design of Full Spectrum Warrior and the Mercenaries series, then led the development of Halo 4 and Battlefield Hardline. He also worked for Oculus VR for two years on Oculus Home. Recently, he has been working on an unannounced project for Ubisoft.

It is not specified which project he will devote his time to at Tencent. However, it is clear that with his background, most likely, we are talking about a militaristic AAA shooter for a new generation of consoles. Whether Tencent will build a new brand or not is an open question. But it is obvious: a new project is being prepared for the Western market, where the Chinese giant continues to strengthen its position.

3. Tencent Europe has received a key developer Kojima Productions

At the end of last week, it became known about another major acquisition of the Chinese gaming corporation. Kenichiro Imatsumi joined its European division.

Kenichiro Imatsumi
He has never been a public figure, unlike his colleague Hideo Kojima.

However, it was Kenichiro, as a producer, who was responsible for most of the games in the Metal Gear Solid series, as well as for the sensational Death Stranding at the end of last year.

There is no information about what he will do at Tencent Europe. But, as in the case of Scott Warner, it is clear: the company is diligently increasing its expertise in developing games for the foreign market.

This is necessary for a company that, on the one hand, feels its dependence within China on the policies of local authorities, and on the other hand, feels growing competition from Chinese colleagues: NetEase, Alibaba, TikTok and others.

However, even without recent acquisitions, the company’s “external” portfolio is voluminous. Among its assets: Funcom, Grinding Gear Games, Riot Games, Supercell, a significant share of Epic Games and Miniclip, as well as minority stakes in companies such as Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Paradox Interactive and others.