News

Tencent backs Life is Strange maker Dontnod

French firm issuing $60.6 million in new shares to fund self-publishing dreams

Date Type Companies involved Size
May 12th, 2021 investment Don't Nod
Tencent
$36.4m
€30m
Tencent backs Life is Strange maker Dontnod

Chinese tech giant Tencent has snapped up a minority stake in French developer Dontnod Entertainment.

The company has invested €30 million ($36.4 million) in the Paris-based studio via its Proxima Beta Europe subsidiary. That would have bought Tencent around 30 per cent of the French developer, based on its current market cap.

This news comes alongside Dontnod announcing that it was trying to raise €50 million ($60.6 million) to fund its self-publishing ambitions via the issue of over three million new shares.

Great partnership

“We are delighted to welcome Tencent as a Dontnod investor," the developer's CEO and chair Oskar Guilbert said.

"This is a real expression of trust from a key online game leader, which is behind a number of success stories and has invested in several leading companies in the video game industry. Through this partnership, Dontnod is perfectly positioned to take advantage of the various growth drivers in the video game industry, in particular in China and on mobile platforms, in cooperation with an industry leader.

"The capital increase announced today will enable us to step up and boost the roll-out of our development plan, which aims to capture more value from our original creations by self-publishing more games."

This is the latest in a long line of games investments and acquisitions for Tencent.

For the full story head over to PCGamesInsider.biz.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.