Tencent officially acquires Splash Damage parent Leyou in $1.5 billion deal

The ink has dried on Tencent's acquisition of Leyou Technologies, meaning the Chinese video game and technology giant now owns Splash Damage, Digital Extremes, and a handful of other developers acquired by Leyou over the years.

Earlier in the year, news broke that Tencent was looking to acquire Leyou. The deal, a $1.5 billion acquisition, was officially confirmed by Tencent shareholders today and studios involved in the deal like Splash Damage have weighed in on their own sites.

“We’ve always been dedicated to creating team-based games that spark friendships and build passionate communities, and we strive to work with partners who believe in that mission," reads a statement from Splash Damage CEO Richard Jolly.

"In our many discussions with Tencent, it became clear that they not only believe in that mission but will do everything they can to enable and empower us to realise it. This is going to be a bold new phase for our studio, with an amazing line-up of ambitious games that deliver on what Splash Damage is all about. We couldn’t be more excited.”

On the Digital Extremes side of things, the Warframe developer says in its own statement that the deal won't impact development of the game and that it expects to retain creative independence under Tencent as it had under Leyou.

This deal extends Tencent's massive reach in the game industry. In addition to these new acquisitions, Tencent owns studios like Riot Games, Funcom, and Shark Mob on top of investments in Supercell, Epic Games, Frontier Developments, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, and many more.