The Chinese tech giants continue their expansion in the games industry: this time, it’s Tencent. They have acquired 1C Entertainment, a Polish company from 1C, and the company will be rechristened shortly.

The announcement of the new owner can be found on the 1C Entertainment website. The deal was done at the end of November, and as all the company’s shares will go to Tencent, the Chinese will have majority ownership (and it also applies to the subsidiaries). 1C Entertainment and the subsidiaries using 1C branding will be renamed within six months of the deal closing. Details on the rebranding will be announced later, so it is not yet known what Tencent will call the bunch.

1C Entertainment includes Cenega (a distribution group with a presence in Eastern Europe), Muve (effectively a digital video game store), QLOC (a game development studio also involved in PC porting) and 1C Online Games (which is involved in both development and publishing).

“We are truly excited by this deal. It is an amazing opportunity for 1C Entertainment to achieve our wildest dreams and aspirations in the video games business. A leading global games company will now back our vision and passion, and I am humbled by the unique chance of working together with Tencent and the other top creative minds that are part of its global ecosystem,” said 1C Entertainment board member Tomasz Nieszporski in a press release. “We couldn’t be more pleased to work with the talented team at 1C Entertainment, supporting them as they embark on a new phase of growth,” Li Shen, Tencent Games global chief technology officer, added.

So Tencent continues to stretch its reach in the West. Let’s not forget that after French media giant Vivendi pulled out of Ubisoft (which acquired its ‘little brother’, the mobile-oriented Gameloft), they are among the new shareholders. They are pretty much everywhere as either majority or minority owners. An excellent example of the latter is Epic Games.

Source: Gematsu