Tencent takes 20% stake in Marvelous for $65m
Investment from Chinese giant will enable Story of Seasons developer to build new and existing IP
Chinese games and tech firm Tencent has purchased a 20% stake in Marvelous, a Japanese publisher and developer.
The company spent approximately ¥7 billion ($65 million) on 11.45 million shares in Marvelous, which is best known for Story of Seasons -- previously known as Harvest Moon -- and action game Daemon x Machina.
Bloomberg reports that Marvelous sold 8.62 million new shares to Tencent directly, while the other 2.83 million were sold by existing shareholders Amuse Capital and Nakayama Hayao for the same price.
Marvelous plans to use the investment to expand its existing properties and launch new IP within the next three years.
The two companies have previously worked together on a Chinese version of Story of Seasons.
Marvelous becomes the latest in a long line of games firms to sell stakes to Tencent.
The Chinese giant already fully owns League of Legends creator Riot Games, Conan Exiles developer Funcom, and Sharkmob, a Swedish studio founded by former Ubisoft and IO Interactive staff.
It also holds stakes of up to 84% in Ubisoft, Epic Games, Activision Blizzard, Paradox Interactive, Supercell, Netmarble, Glu Mobile, Kakao, Frontier Developments, Miniclip, Yager Development, Bluehole, Sumo Group, and Grinding Gear Games.
Last week, it was revealed that Tencent will be "taking the System Shock franchise forward," although it's not clear what role System Shock 3 developer OtherSide Entertainment will continue to play.