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Tencent buys minority stake in Yooka-Laylee firm Playtonic

Date Type Companies involved Size
November 19th, 2021 investment Playtonic Games
Tencent
Not disclosed
Tencent buys minority stake in Yooka-Laylee firm Playtonic

Chinese tech and entertainment giant Tencent has invested in British games studio Playtonic.

The company has bought an undisclosed amount in the Yooka-Laylee maker, which retains full control over its intellectual property. Playtonic says that this investment will be used to staff up and be able to field more than one studio.

“Six years ago we built a cool, exciting rocket ship, set a course we think is right and exciting. We are thrilled that Tencent agrees with that course and has provided some rocket fuel to further the reach of our mission," Playtonic founder Gavin Price (pictured) said.

“The countdown to today has included (deep inhale)... our record breaking Kickstarter for Yooka-Laylee, growing the buddy-duo's reach with the acclaimed Yooka-Laylee and the Impossible Lair, establishing Playtonic Friends and the successful launch of its first three titles - BPM: Bullets Per Minute, A Little Golf Journey and Demon Turf, signing 3 further incredible beauties in L'il gator Game, Victory Heat Rally & Blossom Tales 2 - The Minotaur Prince, and all the while still being cool (ask our parents)! BUT with Tencent’s help we can scale up and fast-track the super-exciting, super-secret projects we've been keeping close to our treasure chests too... things are going to get Bat Ship Crazy over the next few years! Please imagine a wink emoji right now.”

Playtonic founded the Friends publishing label earlier in 2021.


PCGamesInsider Contributing Editor

Alex Calvin is a freelance journalist who writes about the business of games. He started out at UK trade paper MCV in 2013 and left as deputy editor over three years later. In June 2017, he joined Steel Media as the editor for new site PCGamesInsider.biz. In October 2019 he left this full-time position at the company but still contributes to the site on a daily basis. He has also written for GamesIndustry.biz, VGC, Games London, The Observer/Guardian and Esquire UK.