Following acquisition news from earlier today, Bohemia Interactive has now clarified that the information is inaccurate.

On Tuesday, The Information reported that Chinese conglomerate Tencent has bought an estimated 70% to 80% stake in Bohemia Interactive, the Czech Republic-based DayZ and Arma developer

The report said the deal is worth $260 million, according to one person familiar with the matter, suggesting that it was part of a larger plan to expand Tencent’s reach in Europe.

Now, Bohemia is saying that it’s not happening, according to a Google-translated statement made to Hospodarske Noviny.

“It’s not true. Tencent [didn’t] buy us. Bohemia Interactive remains an independent studio,” studio head Petr Polacek reportedly said. “We don’t know where this information came from.”

The developer explained in a press release issued to the same outlet that it has had conversations about “strategic cooperation” in the past, and will continue to do so, but things remain unchanged for now.

Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad said that Tencent is looking to compete with Chinese rival NetEase, and the move could be born from a desire to acquire Ylands, the little known sandbox game created by Bohemia, which Tencent distributed in China.

Another reason for said expansion in Europe has to do with Tencent’s cloud service ambitions. With most games relying on Amazon and Microsoft’s cloud infrastructure, Tencent could stand to boost the profile of its own service when more and more game developers choose it over other options.

Bohemia Interactive recently released new DLC for Arma 3. The studio, of course, continues to support Arma 3, DayZ and Vigor on PC and consoles, but its plans for the future are not clear beyond that.

Posted: Jun 05, 2020 9:02 am
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://www.vg247.com/2020/06/03/tencent-bohemia-interactive-report-not-true/