Video game developer Square Enix has announced a ‘strategic alliance’ with Chinese conglomerate, Tencent Holdings.
Signing a letter of intent, not much is known about the partnership besides a few details that was shared in the announcement. The two parties want to create a joint-venture company, making AAA titles based on new intellectual properties and licensing existing intellectual properties.
Steven Ma, Senior Vice President of Tencent Group discussed the move in a statement: “We have strong expectations for this strategic alliance with Square Enix Group. The alliance will enable us to couple our broad range of internet service capabilities to Square Enix Group’s superb creativity, and provide our customers with unprecedented content experiences on a global basis.”
Effectively, this marks a stronger and closer relationship between Square Enix and Tencent. The latter already has its fingers in numerous pies in the gaming industries: owning Riot Games, publishing PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds in China, and owning stakes in Epic Games, Supercell & Activison Blizzard, and more.
Yosuke Matsuda, President and Representative Director of Square Enix Holdings also shared his thoughts: “Tencent Group and Square Enix Group share the vision of utilizing technology and creativity to deliver unprecedented entertainment experiences and services to a global audience. This newly established alliance will be a strong boost to Square Enix Group’s strategy to diversify our content offerings and expand access channels to a wider customer base.”
Esports Insider says: Tencent continues to expand its reach in the gaming industry, now establishing a strong relationship with Square Enix. More and more developers are getting involved with the Chinese giant, and it’s incredibly unlikely to stop here. Monopoly, anyone?