Tencent is looking to acquire full ownership of developer and publisher Funcom. Funcom is a publically traded company and Tencent currently owns around 29% of the company. Tencent says it will be offering all shareholders 17.00 NOK per share during a period starting in February. Funcom’s current management has announced that they will back the decision and that shareholders should accept the offer. Should the acquisition go through, Tencent has no plans to change management or how the studio operates at all, and that no one new will be brought in. Funcom will effectively get to continue to operate as-is.
Funcom CEO Rui Casais had the following to say about Tencent’s deal:
We have had a great relationship with Tencent as our largest shareholder so far and we are excited about this opportunity. We will continue to develop great games that people all over the world will play, and we believe that the support of Tencent will take Funcom to the next level. Tencent will provide Funcom with operational leverage and insights from its vast knowledge as the leading company in the game space.
With the extra money to be gained from Tencent, Funcom plans to improve its upcoming Dune game. While there haven’t been many details about the project since its announcement, we do know that Dune will be an open-world multiplayer game based on the series of books and upcoming film. Funcom got a contract to make three Dune games in a six-year period, although the MMO is the only announced title at this time. However, the extra Tencent money should help with any future projects as well.
Funcom is a Norwegian-based developer and publisher. It’s mostly known for MMOs such as Anarchy Online, Age of Conan, and The Secret World. Funcom is also behind popular survival game Conan: Exiles and adventure series The Longest Journey. It’s also the publisher behind games like Mutant Year Zero: Road to Eden and the upcoming Moons of Madness.
