Kuro Games, the Chinese game development and publishing company best known for their game ‘Punishing: Gray Raven’, has reportedly been acquired by Tencent. An internal memo sent to staff said the studio would continue to work independently and that its “operational strategy will remain unchanged”.
“Based on our past collaborative experiences with Tencent, we firmly believe that this external shareholder change will provide Kuro with a more stable external environment, further benefiting our future independent operational strategies and long-term development,” read the internal memo.
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In the internal memo, Kuro Games cited the example of Riot Games and Supercell, both of which still maintain a certain level of independence. The acquisition makes Tencent the company’s only external shareholder.
“Over the past decade, our original intention of creating games has never changed, and it will remain unchanged in the next decade. We will continue to love our players, our games, and our team,” added the memo.
Gematsu initially reported the acquisition of Kuro Games. Tencent previously owned a 24.4% stake in Kuro Games. However, the Chinese game publisher recently acquired an additional 37% stake in the Punishing developer, which increased its stake to 51.4%—a controlling stake.
Kuro Games was founded in 2014 as Zhuhai Kuro Technology Co. Ltd. In 2019, the studio received $30 million from Hero HootSuite which gave them a 32.5% stake in Kuro Games. In 2021, the studio announced a tie-in between Nier: Automata and Punishing: Gray Raven. The studio is working on Version 2.0 of Wuthering Waves which is planned for release on January 2.
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