Chinese gaming giant, Tencent, has announced a minority stake in British game developer Playtonic
Although Tencent has taken only a minority stake, it is reported that the dollar amount is significant. The cash injection now has Playtonic primed for rapid expansion.
Playtonic reports it could more than double the number of employees it has within the next few years, allowing it to expand its creative teams and develop more games at a faster rate.
Playtonic founder, Gavin Price said “Six years ago we built a cool, exciting rocket ship, set a course we think is right and exciting. We are thrilled that Tencent agrees with that course and has provided some rocket fuel to further the reach of our mission…
“With Tencent’s help we can scale up and fast-track the super-exciting, super-secret projects we’ve been keeping close to our treasure chests too… things are going to get Bat Ship Crazy over the next few years! Please imagine a wink emoji right now.”
Cash injections into smaller developers and publishers like Playtonic are at all-time highs. Early investors in these smaller companies are now experiencing perhaps far stronger returns than expected. By all indications, the rising valuations in the industry are not expected to slow anytime soon.
2021 M&A activity within the video gaming industry has already widely surpassed the record-breaking year of 2020. Investments in the space reached $13.2 billion in 2020, which was a 77% leap over 2019. The growth and consolidation in the space is nothing less than phenomenal.
With so much consolidation occurring within the industry, smaller developers, publishers, and their investors, stand to be some of the biggest beneficiaries.
As we approach 2022, investment and M&A shows almost zero signs of slowing down.
In fact, many industry experts believe investment activity and public listings in 2022 could surpass this record setting year and could surpass it quickly.
Read more about the Tencent investment in Playtonic, HERE
Or learn more about smaller publishers and developers with patents, HERE