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Chinese company Tencent purchases League of Legends developer Riot Games

One of the biggest MOBA games in the world has been purchased by one of the largest companies in China.

Ozzie Mejia

December 17, 2015 9:58 AM

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League of Legends is among the giants of the gaming world, standing as one of the major pillars of the MOBA genre. And it is now under majority control of one of the biggest companies in China. Earlier this week, Chinese company Tencent purchased Riot Games outright, completing a process that began in 2011 when the company picked up a majority stake in the developer.

"As a result of our continued growth and changing circumstances, we're shifting to a new structure to recognize and reward Rioters' contributions - and that first involves a big change to our existing equity program," explains the Riot website. (via The Verge) "As part of this effort, our majority investor, Tencent, recently purchased the remaining equity of Riot Games."

Tencent currently owns stakes in Epic Games, Glu Mobile, and Activision/Blizzard, among other Western gaming developers.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?