Reports have surfaced suggesting that Chinese giant Tencent is raising money to plan a possible billion-dollar acquisition of a major AAA US game publisher. Insiders seem to think that Tencent will force a hostile takeover of Take-Two Interactive, the publisher of hits like Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto, and Max Payne. The other possible alternative is Electronic Arts, the company that owns a slew of studios like BioWare, DICE, Respawn, Motive, and a few others under its own name.
An easier takeover would be that of a South Korean developer such as NetMarble, the country’s largest studio, or Nexon, the developer of Dungeon Fighter. Tencent is already the third-largest shareholder in NetMarble with a 17% stake, and a hostile takeover shouldn’t be that hard.
The Chinese giant already has exclusive rights to publish Nexon’s Dungeon Fighter in China, so such a takeover will may more sense from a strategic standpoint.
