A rumor circulated today via The Information, suggesting that between 70 to 80% of Czech game development studio Bohemia Interactive (ARMA, DayZ)'s stakes had been acquired by Chinese giant Tencent for around $260 million.
At first glance, the rumor had some credibility, partially thanks to the fact that Tencent has been regularly purchasing stakes in Western studios for years now. Examples include Riot, Funcom, Supercell, Epic Games, Frontier Developments, Activision Blizzard, Paradox Interactive, Ubisoft, and lately Yager.
On the official Bohemia forums, though, CEO Marek Španěl wrote:
Dear all, I just wanted to let you know that the information circulated by various major media sources about Bohemia Interactive acquired by Tencent is not true. We were talking to numerous potential partners in the past about possible strategic cooperation and we may do so in the future as well but as of now, we remain an independent studio.
P.S.: I am just an old man working on games for more than 30 years of my life. But the valuation circulated in the media sounds tempting. Maybe I should think about my retirement plans after all now? Any better offers 😀? Anyway, I guess in the meantime I should get back to work to help our Team Bohemia to continue work on our existing and future games. And last but not least, I want to thank this amazing community for the support over the years. Without you, Arma, DayZ and Bohemia Interactive could never achieve this major success in the world of games.
It looks like Bohemia will stay independent for the time being then. Besides, 2019's financial results announced in March saw a successful year for the company with 4.5 million copies sold between full games and DLCs sold worldwide, which yielded $68 million in sales.
Their free-to-play online action game Vigor, previously an Xbox One exclusive, will launch this Summer on Nintendo Switch.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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