Apparently too busy chasing after the metaverse, Improbable has therefore sold the Inflexion Games studio to Tencent for an indefinite sum. If this studio is based in cold Canadian Edmonton, it’s because it was founded by Aaryn Flynn, who worked at BioWare for no less than 17 years and even ran the studio for 2 years until his departure in 2017.”The sale transaction supports Improbable’s strategy, unveiled earlier this year, which aims to accelerate metaverse-related activities and refocus the company’s content strategy“, explains the press release.
And that’s how Tencent Games seized the opportunity to have an additional studio in its network, a studio that last December unveiled its first game, Nightingale. Announced on PC, this survival and construction game taking place in a world of fantasy will join the Level Infinite range, Tencent’s catch-all publishing label.
“It is a privilege to work with the Tencent family. The strong knowledge and expertise of Tencent’s global teams and their desire to preserve the independence and creative spirit of our team represent an invaluable opportunity for collaboration. We look forward to working together on the Nightingale Early Access launch later this year.“, commented Aaryn Flynn, whose studio has more than 100 employees.
Note that Improbable is still looking for a buyer for its other development studio, Midwinter Entertainment. Based in Seattle and founded by Josh Holmes, former producer and creative director of the Halo franchise, this studio launched early access to its TPS Scavengers last spring on Steam, but this free-to-play is far from having raised crowds.
Already the owner of Riot Games, Supercell, Funcom, Sumo Digital, Klei, Splash Damage, Digital Extremes, Grinding Gear Games, Sharkmob, Yager, Soleil, Turtle Rock Studios and now Inflexion Games, Tencent is also present in the capital of Epic Games ( 40%), Fatshark (36%), Larian Studios (30%), Dontnod (22%), Bloober Team (22%), Marvelous (20%), Krafton (16%), Frontier (9%), Paradox Interactive (8%), Ubisoft (5%), PlatinumGames (not communicated), Remedy (not communicated), Bad Robot Games (not communicated), 10 Chambers (not communicated), Bohemia Interactive (not communicated), Playtonic Games (not communicated ) or Voodoo (not communicated) to name only the main ones. This in addition to its own studios, including TiMi Studios (Honor of Kings, Call of Duty Mobile, Pokémon UNITE), Lightspeed & Quantum Studios (PUBG Mobile, Apex Legends Mobile), and Team Kaiju.