Platinum Games accelerates self-publishing plans with Tencent investment

Platinum Games has secured capital investment from Chinese giant Tencent as the acclaimed Japanese studio continues its journey into self-publishing.

The details of the investment, including the amount, have not been disclosed but the studio has stressed that -- unlike past Tencent investments -- the deal does not involve a change of ownership.

"This partnership has no effect on the independence of our company, and we will continue operations under our current corporate structure," president and CEO Kenichi Sato wrote in the announcement.

Tencent is the largest firm in the games industry thanks to a series of acquisitions and investments. It wholly or partially owns a range of notable companies, including Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Epic Games, Supercell, Riot Games, Glu Mobile, Bluehole, Paradox Interactive, Miniclip and Grinding Gear Games.

Sato said Platinum will use the finance to "strengthen our foundation as a business and expand from game development into exploring self-publishing" -- a journey the studio began last year when it revealed plans to self-publish two new IPs.

Platinum Games has been taking more control of its properties since Microsoft cancelled Scalebound, after which it began work on its first fully-owned IP (previous hits like Bayonetta and Vanquish are still controlled by their publishers).

We spoke to co-founders Hideki Kamiya and Atsushi Inaba back in 2018, who said at the time Platinum Games might never work with a publisher again. A month later, it announced a partnership with Square Enix on upcoming title Babylon's Fall and has since partnered with Nintendo for Astral Chain.

Nonetheless, Platinum Games plans to retain more control over its titles and the Tencent investment will aid the studio in this effort.

"We also hope this partnership can give us a wider global perspective, while still creating high quality games that stay true to our name," Sato concluded.