Tencent Takes Majority Stake In Path of Exile Development Team Grinding Gear Games

The free-to-play RPG is in some pretty great company.

Charles Singletary Jr

May 21, 2018 11:30 AM

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Tencent has investments all over the gaming industry and the Chinese holding conglomerate seems to be getting stronger every week. This week, the company has revealed a majority acquisition of Path of Exile developer Grinding Gear Games for an undisclosed amount.

Gamasutra reported the news, citing a Q & A that Grinding Gears held in the Path of Exile forums. The dev reassured its fans that it will remain independent despite the deal with Tencent, so expect them to maintain creative control of their huge free-to-play RPG. 

"We spoke to CEOs of other companies that Tencent has invested in, and have been assured that Tencent has never tried to interfere with game design or operations outside of China," the forum reads. "We retain full control of Path of Exile and will only make changes that we feel are best for the game."

Grinding Gears had been approached by other suitors, but decided against the previous entities because "they didn't understand Path of Exile" or "had other agendas." 

League of Legends, Clash of Clans, Arena of Valor, Epic Games, and now Path of Exiles are just a few of the major properties or companies Tencent has invested in. Bluehole, the team behind the massively popular PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, may join the family if Tencent goes through with plans to invest $470 million and become the dev team's second-largest shareholder. The company also recently invested in Skydance's virtual reality initiatives. Stay tuned to Shacknews for more updates.

Charles Singletary Jr

News Editor

Charles Singletary Jr keeps the updates flowing as the News Editor, breaking stories while investigating the biggest topics in gaming and technology. He's pretty active on Twitter, so feel free to reach out to him @The_CSJR. Got a hot tip? Email him at Charles.Singletary@Shacknews.com.