Consolidation continues in the video game industry thanks to Chinese industrial juggernaut Tencent. The tech-based conglomerate has just purchased Swedish developer Stunlock for an undisclosed amount, making it the third studio Tencent has purchased in the past month alone.

Stunlock is best known for Battlerite, the free-to-play MOBA that has gathered 6.5 million players since it launched on PC back in 2017. Unlike most MOBA games, Battlerite forgoes towers, minions, and purchasing items in favor of quick and brutal team fights. Best two out of three wins, and if the round goes longer than two minutes, a battle royale-style ring starts forcing the combat into a tighter circle.

Tencent initially collaborated with Stunlock to bring Battlerite to China before acquiring a minority stake back in 2019. Today's majority stake comes just a day after Tencent announced its acquisition of Sumo Group for $1.3 billion, and just a month after acquiring Spec Ops: The Line developer Yager.

Related: Tencent Invests $10 Million To Create Portal Knights Successor

“It’s an honor to represent the biggest game company in the world from the small town of Skövde, Sweden,” said Stunlock CEO Rickard Frisegård. “Tencent’s new investment shows a great deal of trust in us delivering quality titles with our focus on gameplay first. It will give us the opportunity to realize our grand vision for V Rising, our current game in development, and help us in future ventures, expanding long-term as a studio.”

Tencent
via Nikkei Asia
Tencent

Tencent is also rumored to be in talks to acquire Crysis developer Crytek for the low price of 300 million Euros. No word on whether that's moving forward, but German media seems a little spooked at the idea.

Besides buying up every developer under the sun, Tencent is also expanding its own in-house studios under its Timi subsidiary. As reported by Venture Beat, Tencent is opening a brand new studio in Montreal, Canada to start working on an open-world game with games-as-a-service elements for PC and consoles. No other details were provided, but this gives Tencent its third North American studio along with Seattle and Los Angeles.

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