Chinese internet and game giant Tecent has snapped up the remainder of the equity in League of Legends developer Riot Games, making it a fully-owned subsidiary of the company. Tencent originally bought a majority stake in Riot in 2011.
The news comes from a blog post about changes to the company’s policy on worker compensation, and reads, in part: “… our majority investor, Tencent, recently purchased the remaining equity of Riot Games.”
“Riot is going to remain completely independent,” CEO Brandon Beck told Gamasutra in 2011 at the initial sale’s announcement, and that has proved to be the case; given the studio’s success, it seems unlikely that Tencent would swoop in and make changes now.
According to market research firm Newzoo, Tencent is the number one public company in the world according to game revenue. Since its initial investment in Riot, Tencent has shown more interest in Western gaming companies, investing in Epic Games, Robot Entertainment, Glu Mobile, and others.