Sackboy Sumo developer to be acquired by Tencent • Eurogamer.net

Sumo Digital, the UK developer of Sackboy: A Big Adventure and Crackdown 3, is set to be acquired by Tencent for £ 919 million ($ 1.27 billion).

The offer would see shareholders earn a 43% per share increase, GamesIndustry.biz reported, and Sumo bosses want the deal to go through.

Tencent previously held an 8.75% stake in Sumo, whose development credits also include additional work on Forza Horizon 2, LittleBigPlanet 3, Disney Infinity and Team Sonic Racing.

Sumo has offices across the UK in Sheffield, Nottingham, Newcastle, Leamington Spa and Warrington, and is also the parent company of The Chinese Room, developer of Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture.

On top of that, Sumo also owns Oregon-based Pipeworks, which runs on console versions of Terraria, as well as Atomhawk, Lab42, PixelAnt, Red Kite Games, and Sumo Pune.

“The opportunity to work with Tencent is one that we just couldn’t miss. It would bring another dimension to sumo, giving us opportunities to really make our mark on this incredible industry, in a way that was previously out of reach, “said sumo boss Carl Cavers.” Tencent has some solid ground. track record of supporting leadership teams and their existing strategies.

“Along with accelerating intellectual property work, Tencent has demonstrated its commitment to supporting the work of our customers and has stated its intention to ensure that we have the necessary investments to continue to focus on working with our key strategic partners. on the development projects. “

Sumo is the latest company to come to the attention of Tencent, the Chinese conglomerate with a long list of investments in the video game industry.

Its influence within the video game industry has grown rapidly in recent years, with investments in Ubisoft, Epic Games, Remedy, Sumo, Marvelous, Dontnod, Klei, Platinum, Bohemia Interactive, Roblox and Krafton, as well as owned by Funcom, Sharkmob, Riot Games and its own huge studios Timi, the developer behind the titans of the Call of Duty Mobile smartphone and the upcoming Pokémon Unite.