Will Bayonetta maker PlatinumGames change after Tencent investment?

The company behind Nier: Automata and Astral Chain is Tencent’s latest gaming investment

Reading Time:4 minutes

PlatinumGames has been widely hailed as one of the best action game makers. (Picture: Bayonetta 2/PlatinumGames)

Published: 11:20pm, 7 Jan 2020Updated: 10:02pm, 16 Feb 2020

This article originally appeared on ABACUS

Tencent is investing in yet another big overseas gaming company, with iconic action game maker PlatinumGames being the Chinese tech giant’s latest target.

The esteemed Japanese studio behind Bayonetta, Nier: Automata and Astral Chain announced that Tencent invested an undisclosed amount of money in the gaming company. But the Osaka-based developer said the new “partnership” with Tencent will have “no effect on the independence” of the company.

Concerns about how investment from China affects companies aren’t unfounded. As concerns about censorship from China rose last year, Tencent was caught up in the biggest controversy around this subject when it briefly stopped streaming NBA games. Game developer Blizzard also found itself criticised for punishing a professional Hearthstone player who supported the Hong Kong protests.

PlatinumGames has been widely hailed as one of the best action game makers. (Picture: Nier: Automata/PlatinumGames)

But PlatinumGames has its own reasons for taking the money. While the developer is known for its great action games, all except the most recent Astral Chain are owned by bigger publishing companies like Sega and Nintendo. The company has been expressing its desire to move toward self-publishing, and it said that Tencent’s investment will help further this goal.

Still, the question of whether Tencent will influence PlatinumGames looms large. Tencent often engages in censorship at home to stay in line with China’s media controls. Fortunately, Tencent’s track record appears to show interference in the creative process of foreign companies is rare.

Perhaps the most famous gaming company owned by Tencent is Riot Games, the company behind the massively popular MOBA League of Legends. Tencent acquired a majority stake in Riot Games in 2011, and it has fully-owned Riot since 2015. But the Los Angeles-based developer is largely perceived to operate independently of its parent company.