If you follow the $116 billion game business, you may know that China has become the world’s biggest game market, and that Tencent is the world’s biggest game company. But we learned just how big it has become this week with a report on investments and acquisitions by tech advisory firm Digi-Capital. “In games deal making, there’s Tencent, then there’s everyone else,” Digi-Capital said in a post. In some ways, that’s alarming, particularly if it turns out that national borders matter when it comes to creating jobs and economies in the game industry. In other ways, it shows just how global games have become, and it’s a sign of progress that games are creating so much value in the world. Tencent accounted for over $4 of every $10 invested in games companies worldwide in the last 12 months through the first quarter of 2018. It was involved either sell-side or buy-side in over three-quarters of all games mergers and acquisitions in the same period. All told, $2.1 billion was invested in games in the first quarter, and $14.4 billion was spent on acquisitions. “Funny thing is I forecast this all the way back in 2010, before most folks outside China had heard of the company,” said Tim Merel, managing director at Digi-Capital, in an email. “They were impressive then, but now they’re on another level.” Above: Tencent accounted for a lot of gaming deals in the past year. Image Credit: Tencent Even if you’ve been following Tencent’s growth over the… [Read full story]
Leave a Reply