China’s largest social media and video game company Tencent Holdings expanded its business by launching a new California-based studio this week, Reuters reported.

Former Rockstar veteran Steve Martin will lead the new studio and will focus on the development and publishing of AAA titles, Tencent Games’ LightSpeed and Quantum Studios said in a statement to Reuters.

“We’re ushering in a new era of game culture by combining world-class development with a stress-free work environment,” Martin said in the statement.

Tencent is putting efforts to expand its footprints overseas by building an array of studios to creat content with original intellectual property that has global appeal.

Tencent launches the studio intending to derive half its games revenue from overseas, a category that accounted for about 23 per cent of its fourth-quarter online game sales.

Recently, Tencent has employed Halo 4 lead designer Scott Warner to head another newly-established new studio grouped under TiMi Studios, the maker of Arena of Valor and Call of Duty: Mobile.

Tencent also owns League of Legends creator Riot Games. It has majority control of Clash of Clans maker Supercell.

The new studio in Orange County has hired creative talent from Rockstar Games, Sony VASG, Respawn Entertainment, 2K Games, and Insomniac.

Last week, the gaming company unravelled its plan for 40 upcoming games. This includes Mobile Dungeon & Fighter and an unnamed Metal Slug mobile game in partnership with SNK Corp.

It also announced a cross-platform Pokemon team battling game running on Nintendo Co Ltd’s Switch console and mobile.

Tencent Holdings’ shares soared high this week with more than 8 per cent to a historic high of HK$521 after the announcement of the new games.

Related Topics
comment COMMENT NOW