Chinese technology giant Tencent will buy a majority stake in Clay Entertainment, the Canadian indie developer Do not starve, studio founder Jamie Cheng announced on the company’s official forums on Friday.
“As part of this agreement,” Cheng wrote, “Clay retains full autonomy of creativity and operations in all aspects of the studio, including projects, talent and more.” Cheng mentioned ‘changing industry’ as an important factor in his decision.
Clay was first profiled here on Polygon in 2013. The company spent the same year with the release of Do not starve, a peculiar survival game with a playful art style. The game eventually evolved into Do not starve together, which added multiplayer and other features to the experience. Cheng founded Clay in 2005 in Vancouver, British Columbia; the studio’s other games include 2010s Leg and 2012’s Brand of the Ninja.
Do not starve together is actually where Clay’s relationship with Tencent began. In 2016, Clay partnered with the company to bring Do not starve together to China, where the game was very successful. It was especially the very first game launched on the WeGame platform, the equivalent of Tencent’s Steam.
“We looked at a lot of different businesses,” Cheng said, “and over the years, we worked with a large number of publishers and distributors. Tencent is the only company that we believe will be able to maintain the level of control we demand. ”
Cheng added that the experience for players in North America should remain unchanged after Tencent acquires the majority stake in Clay, while those in China will receive ‘better support’ due to the purchase.
This is by no means the first time that Tencent, the world’s largest distributor of video games, has made an investment in Western developers and publishers. The massive Chinese company owns Riot Games (League of Legends), and investing in Epic Games (Fortnite), Activision Blizzard (Call of Duty, World of Warcraft), Paradox Interactive, Roblox, and many others. Tencent is also investing in technology companies such as Discord and Reddit. Income from these investments has helped founder “Pony” Ma Huateng become the richest man in China, according to a 2017 report.