Tencent Invests in Spec Ops: The Line Studio YAGER Development

Tencent, the Chinese tech mega-conglomerate, has been making major moves in the gaming industry. It continues to expand its investment portfolio with a new strategic minority investment. Berlin-based studio Yager Development announced that Tencent has made an undisclosed amount of capital.

This influx of capital will help Yager in their self-publishing efforts and continuing their work on the current project, The Cycle, a competitive quest shooter, as well as other upcoming projects.

Tencent is not only the world’s leading games company but also a prolific investor with a stellar track record. We’re humbled to join the line-up of Tencent partners, which reads like a games industry Who’s Who,” said YAGER CEO Timo Ullmann. “We’re confident that this will greatly enhance the scope of our business, not just by getting access to Tencent’s network and resources, but by tapping the vast industry know-how Tencent possesses.”

Yager was founded 20 years ago but became popular among gamers for their introspective and critically acclaimed Spec Ops: The Line in 2012.  In 2019, they debuted The Cycle on the Epic Game Store, a free-to-play multiplayer game where players have to complete missions while competing against other squads of players.

Yager expressed that Tencent will be a strategic partner to provide their expertise to the studio. “Over the last few years, Yager has been developing our games-as-a-service approach in connection with a F2P business model, and this presented its own set of challenges for us,” said Ullmann. “This is why we were looking for a strategic investor who shared our vision and who possesses not just the financial resources, but also a lot of experience in this field, and we found this investor with Tencent.”

Over the years, Tencent has been acquiring stakes in game developers and publishers. Here is a list of other companies that Tencent has invested in:

• Riot Games (100 percent)
• Epic Games (40 percent)
• Bluehole (11.5 percent)
• Ubisoft (5 percent)
• Activision Blizzard (5 percent)
• Grinding Gear Games (80 percent)
• Supercell (84.3 percent)
• Platinum Games (Undisclosed)
• Frontier Development (9 percent)
• Kakao (13.5 percent)
• Funcom (29 percent
• Sharkmob (100 percent)
• Discord (Undisclosed)