Tencent Tables $1.3 Billion Takeover of Sackboy Dev Sumo Digital

Can’t say I’m happy about this but people say Tencent has a very hands-off approach with their studios so it might mean nothing other than the profits going to China.

@Kidfried
Just the sort of meaningless corporate bs they're expected to say in this scenario I suppose. Trying to persuade people that what's happened is definitely a good thing.

I don't like Tencent AT ALL, but if they keep their grubby hands off Sumo's projects (censorship and that stuff), then I'll let it slide.

Well that's a bummer. It's definitely unsettling how many companies Tencent has their tentacles in at this point but that's just the way it is I guess. And while it's easy to criticize companies for taking the money, I can't honestly say I wouldn't do the same no matter what necessarily. Hopefully they still have creative freedom of their work after this.

Tencent have stakes in almost all of the largest gaming companies now, owning some completely. Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Epic, Riot, Paradox, Remedy, Platinum etc. Not sure how 'hands off' they actually are either with several reports of censorship and stopping free speech as the Chinese company gains more control.

Tencent were no doubt behind Activision removing Tiananmen Square from the cold war trailer, one of, if not the biggest franchise in gaming, so If you think they're going to be hands off with any company they hold shares in, your far more optimistic than I am.

To be honest I would Rather it be them than Microsoft lol. At least Sony could still work with them on external exclusives.

Cracking article in the Guardian at the weekend with article about growing Chinese state influences on gaming censorship.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/jul/15/china-video-game-censorship-tencent-netease-blizzard?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

@R1spam They do the same with movies. This is their long term plans to entrench themselves in western media and infrastructure.

Can't say im too pleased seeing Sumo being owned outright by Tencent especially with their censorship rules which are often frankly, ridiculous.

For a country that claims to be so mighty and powerful their leadership sure have thin skin.

If our Chinese overlords are reading this:

Your glorious leader looks like Winnie the Pooh.

Bite me. x

It's all fun and games at the moment, but with the amount of studios Tencent now own, how long before they consider making their own console?

Damn. I really wanted Sumo to make a Winnie the Pooh game after Sackboy.

@Kidfried $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

More bad news.

Not good. There’s a lot of hate towards MS around here and you have your reasons, but I think Chinese run Tencent buying anyone is much worse in the long term.

@solocapers Is it irony that you use a Disney character and ignore the fact that the west does exactly the same thing from the very company that have ownership over such a character? China, America, greed, capital. It's all the same.

Even putting aside the more obvious concerns of Tencents ownership,for a company that doesn't have a stake in the console hardware business, they seem to have expanded massively across a number of publishers strategically that if they do (even if exclusively in its home market),they'll have no trouble pumping games out if they did enter the market.

Chinese companies like Tencent continuing to engage in anticompetitive practices that hurt consumers and smaller businesses. This needs to continue to be scrutinized or it's a terrible digital future ahead.

Fantastic. Just like Hollywood, the games industry will start selling out to CCP censorship and then get dropped on its head once China has imitated and created their own domestic gaming industry.

@solocapers

You have spouted counter revolutionary jargon comrade. You will be sent to the nearest “school” for “re-education.”

This is terrible news, I was hoping Sony was the one that aquire them as they are a very talented studio. I think Tencent are a few purchases away from possibly making their own console.

No references to Taiwan, Uighur, Tiananmen Square massacre or Winnie the Pooh in any Sumo games from now on.

This is horrible. Let the censorship and propaganda begin. The Chinese Communist Party is evil, and Tencent is right in line with them. A very troubling trend with them getting their tentacles into all aspects of the gaming industry.

1.3 billion? that's making MS buying Bethesda looking like an even better deal

That's a shame. I thought it would be nice if Sony bought Sumo Digital, so we could get LittleBigPlanet games with regularity and maybe other franchises could be reinvigorated. Sumo Digital did a fine job with the LittleBigPlanet franchise.

Fine I'll never support them again then screw them and anyone who sells out to these vile disgusting monsters.

@TheCollector316 it's a true shame.

@Fenbops I don't know, I'd have preferred if they'd bought Bethesda as at least their games would've came to PS.

😝

Money talks and some people are now incredibly rich. They just need to know when to bow and kowtow to their Chinese overlords.

And I, for one, welcome.....

Nah, not really.

I didn't realize they were worth 1.5 billion, at least when compared to the price Sony paid for Insomniac.

@The_New_Butler Gooner? Mate, Ozil was stealing a living at Woolwich. They did you a bloody favour!

Yes, I am a Spurs fan.

😉

@The_New_Butler To be fair, Ozil had Erdogan as his best man at his wedding so it’s a bit ironic of him to be critical of China.

@The_New_Butler Champions League? You haven't been in it for ages.

😝

And yes, it's unlikely we will be also anytime soon. Things don't look good for us either and I sympathise with your lack of faith in your club's current ownership as I feel the same way about Levy and ENIC.

Anyhoo, Sackboy. Pretty nonpolitical so I don't imagine any new games will be neutered by the change in owners.

Wouldn't surprise me if Chinese investors like Tencent purchase western media and events companies such as ReedPop, start to control what news websites (Push Square) can report on and what goes on at PAX/EGX.

I guess I have to put on my tin-foil hat here, but here goes. Does it seem possible to anyone else that Tencent might be working for the Chinese government in trying to infiltrate more American households for cyber attacks.
With games being updated on occasion, it would be simple enough to plant malware in games and use it to attack homes at first and infrastructure next.
It's not as if home games have stringent
anti virus/malware built into them.
If I would going to digitally attack a country, I would not go straight to Windows, I would move through a soft target in almost every American home: video game consoles which are attached to the Internet and to the LAN inside those homes.

@RubyCarbuncle Have you heard the news today about a Chinese cyber attack? I don't think it's that far fetched.

I'm gonna pretend like I know what I'm talking about for a second here...

It is funny the US and the west fought a decades-long political battle with China to "convert" them from communism to capitalism. And now China has adopted some nightmare form of capitalism of purchasing our companies to further the Communist Part of China's agenda (presumably).

Evil genius level stuff and nothing we can do but watch as the fastest growing economy in the world shallows everything up.

Also, follow up question: what does the SEC actually do? I know Sumo is a British company, but aren't they are supposed to stop this crap from happening here in the States? You know, limit and regulate "anti-competitive" purchases of other companies... How big does a corporation have to get before absorbing more companies gets a 'no' from them.

Nothing to do with gaming, just random thoughts.

Monopolization of the video games industry is the biggest issue that we are currently facing.

It was expected because company acquisitions happen during economic downturns, but I think people were blindsided by the advent of the superpublishers.

@UnlimitedSevens We have a Monopolies Commission over here in the UK that does a hell of a lot more than the SEC. This isn’t a monopoly though, just a bad move for consumers.

I honestly believe PlayStation and Xbox need to team up in some ways. With Tencent being controlled by the CCP they are going to be almost unstoppable.

Any game owned by Tencent is heavily censored. China and the CCP will also be the good guys. How many games make western governments and corporations look bad? Free speech allows this. This wont happen in China.

PS fans, XBox is not your enemy.

This is like marrying a rich but abusive person. Sure the money is nice but you better walk on eggshells and mind your tongue around them or there will be hell to pay.

Anyone but Tencent. Sony, Microsoft or literally anyone but them. 😟

@RubyCarbuncle TiMi Studios (same that studio that is working on the new pokemon as well ) is the studio that made the game, but they are a subsidiary of Tencent Games.

@Dpishere They bought Sumo Group which employs over 500+ people, have several major offices, and several subsidiaries like The Chinese Room... Tencent didn't just buy the developer, but a holding company.

@solocapers Yeah, exactly. Just like how they control their own media, they also want control of foreign media, to control the way China is portrayed in the media. And it will work in the long term.

In Chinese media you don't hear about the protests in Hong Kong for example. Most probably don't even have a clue what's going on. The Uyghurs, who are they?

There has to be some sort of tax reason or something else for these dollar amounts. 1.3 billion dollars?! That's insane.

Insomniac sold for less than a quarter of that. The studio that made Spider-Man, a spin off, and Ratchet within the past couple of years sold for less than a quarter of Sumo Digital which recently shook the world with . . . Sackboy: A Big Adventure. It makes literally no sense.

But at least Tencent can claim another $1.3 billion in expenses.

Do sumo digital worth that much? No wonder they sold it. Now it’s the time for acquisition, sony needs to acquire bluepoint studio fast.

@RubyCarbuncle There's no paranoia from @svark. It's not actually uncommon. Do you not recall when Lenovo was caught putting spyware on their Thinkpads? And when the OS was wiped and reinstalled it would magically re-appear, eventually discovered they baked it into the firmware itself to install it into Windows automatically. After they were caught they "fixed" it. Then it showed up again a few years later, at which point the US banned Lenovo hardware from all government purchases since they were clearly not secure.

What @svark suggests isn't actually paranoid, or unprecedented, or even unusual for Chinese electronics and software companies. It's old news.

Of course the NSA was requiring Cisco to include back doors for them in all routing hardware, so it's not just the CCP playing this game. All the more reason to be even more paranoid.

@SplooshDmg
But as noted above by others, Sumo has a market value of something like 150 million. We hear of companies selling for maybe 20% above market value, but 900% above value? It's crazy.

Fantastic news... I remember tencent took over clash of clans and that became a huge hit. I didn't suffer from micro transactions at all plus created a clan where I met amazing ppl from around the world!! Swedes, Brazilians, Americans, etc. Then they bought up Epic and I played Shadowrun for free!! Steam has upped its game. Love competition, its the driver of innovation and creates new jobs. Peace to all gamers, and don't like it - vote with your pocket innit!?

Confusing headline for US readers... to “table” something means to postpone it in the States.

@KippDynamite A lot of Insomniacs IP was already owned by Sony that was the only reason Sony got such a good deal. why it was such a great fit for both companies they have worked together for so long.

does Sumo Digital own any IPs? from what I can tell the big games are all owned by other companies?
wonder if they will still want to work with them now?

Uff... that's another one down for the count.
Such a shame... i liked their Sonic racing games.

@Kidfried
Simple right? Starts with a M ends with an Y

Tencent is by far the worst publisher in the world, just can't wait to fill any game with gotcha mechanics and microtransactions, a win for them is a loss for us all

@Octane and yet all your views are controlled by western media with no real idea what is actually happening in China other then what the bias media tells you

That seems like a crazy ammount of money for a studio that has no IP's.

@electrolite77

Queue the Duck Tales theme with Scrooge McDuck swimming in his money pit.