News

Tencent invests undisclosed sum in Bayonetta developer PlatinumGames

"We hope to use this capital to strengthen our foundation as a business"

Date Type Companies involved Size
January 7th, 2020 investment PlatinumGames Inc.
Tencent
Not disclosed
Tencent invests undisclosed sum in Bayonetta developer PlatinumGames

Chinese giant Tencent has invested in Japanese games developer PlatinumGames.

The expenditure will be used as a "basis" for the new partnership, but it will not give Tencent any control over Platinum as the studio remains independent. The capital will be used to help Platinum begin to explore self-publishing its titles.

PlatinumGames has several games in development, including an upcoming iOS and Android title known as Lost Order as well as Bayonetta 3 for the Nintendo Switch.

In 2019, Platinum launched Astral Chain on Nintendo Switch with the game receiving high praise, currently sitting at an 87 on Metacritic.

Strengthening foundations

"We hope to use this capital to strengthen our foundation as a business and expand from game development into exploring self-publishing," wrote PlatinumGames president and CEO Kenichi Sato in a blog post.

"We also hope that this partnership can give us a wider global perspective, while still creating high quality games that stay true to our name. Thank you as always for your continued support. Please look forward to what we have in store."

PlatinumGames had soft-launched a spiritual successor to Okami named World of Demons back in June 2018. However, it appears the game was canned in January 2019 after it was removed from the App Store without warning.

In November, Tencent acquired 15 million shares or 10 per cent of Sumo Group, owners of UK studio Sumo Digital. Miniclip, a company Tencent owns a majority share of, reportedly acquired Ilyon Games for $100 million this week.


Deputy Editor

Matthew Forde is the deputy editor at PocketGamer.biz and also a member of the Pocket Gamer Podcast. You can find him on Twitter @MattForde64 talking about stats, data and everything pop culture related - particularly superheroes.