Tencent Buys Up Controlling Shares in Grinding Gear Games

The New Zealand Herald is reporting that Chinese megacorporation Tencent Holdings has bought up a controlling stake in Grinding Gear Games, developers of Path of Exile. The purchase was made after GGG sold up to 80% of its shares to Tencent. Chris Wilson told the newspaper that "the deal meant the company could expand and hire more people for its Auckland-based studio".

"They proposed the deal after they decided they liked us," Wilson said. "There have been many people interested for a number of years but finding someone we knew would be a good fit for us and would let us get on with our own stuff independently was important because we often talk to people who have various plans for our company."

GGG's Chris Wilson also took to Reddit with an FAQ (Thanks, Cheyane!):

Is Grinding Gear Games becoming part of Tencent?

Grinding Gear Games is still an independently-run company in New Zealand. All of its developers still work for Grinding Gear Games and have not become Tencent employees. The founders (Chris, Jonathan and Erik) are still running the company, just like we have been for the last 11 years. Going forward, we will have financial reporting obligations to Tencent but this will have minimal impact on our philosophy and operations.

Will Tencent try to change Path of Exile?

No. 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. We retain full control of Path of Exile and will only make changes that we feel are best for the game.

Will Path of Exile become Pay to Win?

No. We will not make any changes to its monetisation on our international servers.

Read the full article at the New Zealand Herald.