Tencent Has Bought Turtle Rock Studios, Developer Of Back 4 Blood

The Chinese tech company Tencent has announced yet another game developer acquisition, and this time it's Turtle Rock Studios' parent company, Slamfire.

This means that Turtle Rock will also become part of Tencent. The announcement noted that the studio will still retain its independent operations out of California, and the existing team who run studio operations, led by co-founders Phil Robb and Chris Ashton, will continue.

"We are all looking forward to joining the Tencent family of studios,” said Steve Goldstein, president and general manager of Turtle Rock Studios. “Tencent’s outstanding partners, global reach, deep knowledge of gaming and unprecedented support will help us create the kinds of ambitious games we dream of, while allowing us to retain our autonomy and independent spirit.”

Turtle Rock is best known for developing the Left 4 Dead series, as well as the recently released zombie cooperative shooter, Back 4 Blood, 2015's Evolve, and Counter-Strike: Source (which was co-developed with Valve).

“We are huge fans of Turtle Rock’s games, especially their amazing approach to creating co-operative online games,” said Eddie Chan, chief strategy officer of Tencent Games Global. “We can’t wait to see what comes next, and we’re excited to be part of their future.”

Tencent also holds ownership over League Of Legends developer Riot Games, as well as Fortnite creators Epic Games. The company is also an investor of Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Grinding Gear Games--the developer of Path of Exile--and more. Turtle Rock is its latest acquisition.