Tencent Holdings Makes an Epic Purchase

This morning, news broke that Tencent Holdings, an internet service company that provides social networks, multiplayer gaming, and e-commerce—and which ranks third in size behind Google and Amazon worldwide—has purchased a minority stake in Epic Games. The details of the deal aren’t known right now, but the partnership will give Epic a strong foothold in its plans to expand business into the People’s Republic of China. In addition, according to a post on Gamasutra about the deal, this marks the first investment Epic has received from outside the company.

Said David Wallerstein, senior executive vice president of Tencent:

“We’ve developed a huge amount of respect for the Epic team for many years now, as dedicated players of Epic’s games and as licensees of Epic’s Unreal Engine technology. We have a lot that we can learn from each other, and we look forward to supporting the Epic team as they embark on their next phase of gaming innovation across both emerging and familiar platforms.”

A post on Joystiq about the deal also points out that Tencent made a similar sort of purchase in 2011, when it bought a minority stake in Riot Games, the makers of League of Legends. That deal allowed riot to continue independent operations. Considering that Epic seems to have been pretty stable with its various offerings, this deal only seems to be further strengthening one of the industry’s powerhouses.

Also: Tencent’s mascot is a penguin! Adorable!

Via Gamasutra and Joystiq