The announcement came out today through Techland’s official media press. If you are unaware of the studio, they are the developers behind the Dead Island and Dying Light game series. Tencent has been acquiring gaming developers left and right since 2022 in its attempt to gain control of the market. At the time of this writing, the Chinese gaming giant owns over 23 gaming studios all over the world, with minor stakes in many more.
The blog post was curated by Techland’s CEO Pawel Marchewka. Even though Tencent will now be the majority stakeholder in the Polish development studio, technically owning it, Techland will still retain the ownership of its content. According to Pawel Marchewka, they are pairing with Tencent in order to boost the execution of their games while retaining their initial vision.
Tencent has managed to garner a healthy reputation among gaming studios as a partner that allows developers to retain their individuality. The CEO of Techland supported this claim by providing a statement of his own through the blog post.
What’s The Story Behind Techland?
Techland was founded by Pawel Marchewka in 1991 and gained popularity through its hit shooter series Call of Juarez. But their name didn’t become a staple till their entry into the world of gaming through Dead Island. Riptide was the sequel to the hit open-world zombie horror game and was rated highly by gaming enthusiasts.
Afterward, the Polish developer split off from their publisher Deep Silver, who now owns the Dead Island IP. In 2015, Techland released Dying Light, their own version of a sequel to Dead Island. Published through their own studio, Dying Light 2 is the latest addition to their impressive collection of video games.
The Polish studio has been deteriorating in the management sector, with over 20 employees quitting the studio. While the exact details of the current situation are unclear, we do hope that Tencent partnering up will do some good to the studio.
Tencent has been on a spending spree since 2022, acquiring several high-profile game development studios. While this acquisition might be good news for Techland right now, we have no clue what the future holds. Tencent is all about business and there’s a high chance that they will spit out what they gobble up if it doesn’t go their way!
