Tencent and LINE unite to invest millions in mobile game makers

Newsbrief: Chinese holding company Tencent and Japanese corporation LINE -- makers of the remarkably popular WeChat and LINE mobile messaging platforms, respectively -- seem to be joining forces and making big investments in game developers to lock down unique games for their platforms. TechCrunch reports that the two companies have jointly invested roughly $110 million in Korean games company 4:33 Creative Lab, whose mobile games (pictured) already appear on the popular South Korean mobile messaging platform KakaoTalk. The full impact of this investment on 4:33's development efforts remains unclear, but it's interesting to see two of the biggest names in Asian mobile games teaming up to invest in game makers. The 4:33 investment likely won't be their last, either. "We're just getting started on our global investment strategy," LINE COO Takeshi Idezawa told TechCrunch. "We're going global hand in hand."