Reported from Bloomberg, China’s biggest Game Company Tencent Holdings is planning to buy 20% stake in Marvelous Japan. This would give capital to Marvelous to build on its own IPs as well allowing Tencent to bolster its own content.
The report states that Tencent will spend about 7 billion yen (65$ million USD) to buy stock in the company. At that time, Marvelous will sell 8.26 million new shares for 576 yen apiece.
Marvelous states that it plans to use the money to continue to build on it IPs and licenses, including releasing new ones in three years’ time. This involves series like Story of Seasons, Daemon X Machina, and Senran Kagura.
According to Hideki Yasuda, he believes the reason for investment is to learn how to make console games from Japanese companies. One of the last areas the Chinese market is exploring. This would also help Marvelous release more games to the West as well be a financial cushion in the time of COVID-19 and financial uncertainty.
Tencent has been quite aggressive with gaining stock within many industries including gaming. This is after a partnership with Platinum Games. To see Tencent amassing an influence within many companies is something to watch out for. Whether this is for better or for worse remains to be seen.