Tencent Buys A Stake In Yet Another Game Developer, And It's DayZ's Bohemia

After a record-breaking year in 2020 for the number of investments it made in game studios, Chinese internet giant Tencent continues that trend by making a minority investment in DayZ and Arma studio Bohemia Interactive.

In a blog post, Bohemia said Tencent has taken a minority stake in the developer, which follows on from Tencent's investment in Life Is Strange studio Dontnod in January. Bohemia says it will continue to operate independently following the deal.

The exact financial or organizational terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Bohemia said it will bring its new PC/mobile game Ylands to China.

"We are pleased to deepen our relationship with Tencent, one of the most significant internet companies in the world," Bohemia CEO Marek Spanel said. "We look forward to working on our current and future generations of games with the support of a strong partner that has known us for many years and understands our unique approach to online games."

A report from Niko Partners showed that Tencent made 31 deals in 2020 related to investments in the games industry, which is three times as many deals as it did in 2019. Its biggest deal was the $1.5 billion buyout of Leyou, the parent company of Warframe developer Digital Extremes.

Some of Tencent's other moves in 2020 included investing in--but not buying outright--the Japanese studio Platinum Games. Tencent also acquired Conan developer Funcom and bought GTFO studio 10 Chambers.

Tencent now owns or has invested in a great number of gaming companies. It owns Riot (League of Legends), Grinding Gear Games (Path of Exile), and Supercell (Clash of Clans), while Tencent also owns a piece of Fortnite studio Epic Games. Tencent also has minority investments in Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, and Bluehole.

So far in 2021, Tencent has made three major investments in game studios, including fully acquiring Don't Starve studio Klei Entertainment, as well as investing in Dontnod and now Bohemia.