280°

Tencent enters in exclusive talks to acquire Warframe parent company Leyou

Recently, reports emerged that Sony was preparing a bid to acquire Leyou. Now, it appears that Tencent is the most likely buyer and have entered exclusive discussions.

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androidcentral.com
morganfell1423d ago

Say goodbye to Warframe as you know it. And Splash Damage, been nice knowing you.

himdeel1423d ago

Yep very bad news. I wouldn't be as worried with Sony stepping in, but them, straight doom and gloom.

darthv721423d ago

Tencent seems to be dipping their toes into just about anything. They have a 40% stake in Epic as well.

Shiken1423d ago

Yeah, say goodbye to one of the actual good F2P games that allows you to get everything with reasonably dedicated gameplay.

You literally did not have to buy anything in this game, you only did it to support the dev. If Tencent steps in, it will never be the same.

morganfell1423d ago (Edited 1423d ago )

I remember when it first came out on the PS3. I thought, wow, right out of an old Phantagram trailer. And you are so correct. You had to buy nothing but I did because I felt guilty playing something so well designed...for free. As you said, repaying the devs.

LordoftheCritics1423d ago (Edited 1423d ago )

We had a good run Tennos.

rainslacker1423d ago

Tencent wants to own everything it seems. Or, "hold it", since they're just a holding company. Or at least have a significant stake in everything. I get that they want to diversify and expand. But damn, they have so many eggs in their basket, it's practically obscene.

+ Show (1) more replyLast reply 1423d ago
Abnor_Mal1423d ago

I thought Sony were also looking to acquire Leyou.

https://www.eventhubs.com/n...

Direwolf4841423d ago

They were. Evidently they were outbid.

Abnor_Mal1423d ago

Seems they were, sad, that acquisition could have possibly helped Sony create an exclusive multiplayer game since a few of the companies under Leyou worked on MP games.

LucasRuinedChildhood1423d ago

It's actually kind of funny because they just invested $250 million into Epic ... who Tencent own 40% of the shares in. It's a cutthroat business, I suppose. Tbh, I think they're are more exciting things for Sony to spend a billion dollars on.

rainslacker1423d ago

This sounds more like a buyout deal than a stakeholder deal. This means that Tencent would have complete control over the studio, and it's IP's. Warframe I suppose has been doing pretty good all these years. Not talked about much, but I hear it has a good following. I could see Sony wanting to acquire it to own the franchise, and maybe have the dev do something new, or expand on WF.

I don't think the Epic deal and them wanting to buy Leyou were connected though, nor would Tencents stake in Epic mean much to Sony unless Sony was just a silent partner in Epic. I have a strong feeling, with no backing other than some guess work, that there is something specific Sony is funding with that money. General investment wouldn't require an announcement, nor is the sum of investment worth much to make it worth announcing....at least outside of shareholder disclosures.

Shikoku1423d ago

Please for the love of God sell to Sony. Tencent needs stopped..

AzubuFrost1423d ago

And yet it's ok for Sony to spread to North America, Europe, China, and other international countries with game devs?

Make some sense pls.

luckytrouble1423d ago

The issue is that Sony is legitimately just building a set of studios to continue expanding their game business. Everything they do is to promote the PlayStation brand on the global stage.

Tencent, nobody is 100% what exactly they're doing. They're just a giant company with known ties to the Chinese government that have been trying really hard to leech as much profit out of the game industry as they can for the past several years.

But I mean, you tell me if you're comfortable having the company that has made propaganda for the Chinese government getting their hands all over the gaming industry.

AzubuFrost1423d ago

luckytrouble

Wanna know something fun? I wouldn't be surprised if Tencent already invested money into Sony. And if Tencent did what will people here going to do?

Angyobangyo1423d ago

@AzubuFrost,

To quote you, "Make some sense pls". Saying, "Wannaknow something fun?" like stating you know that it's a fact that Tencent has invested in Sony, then you go on to use a conditional which is used for imaginary circumstances. Take you tinfoil hat off son.

rainslacker1423d ago

@Lucky

Tencent is a holding company, which basically means they own or are vested in, and manage a bunch of stuff. In this case, a bunch of video game publishers or studios. They're expanding just like any other business really.

They have had rapid advancement, and things they have large stakes in tend to not be all that appealing to hardcore gamers....mostly because they chase after the easy cash more than they seem to have an interest in actual game advancement. But, they still have holdings that are making regular games.

I'd prefer they not keep buying up everything though. Having that much control over an industry is never a good thing, regardless of their intentions or ties to whatever powers may be.

Shikoku1423d ago (Edited 1423d ago )

I'm pretty sure you're a trash sock account just defending this crap.

Shikoku1423d ago

@Rain
No they're are a Chinese business not just a holding company and a front for the communist party other people maybe just fine helping support communism but I'm not.

+ Show (3) more repliesLast reply 1423d ago
Iamnothuman121423d ago

Chinese want their hands in everything.

RememberThe3571423d ago

They certainly have the money for it

Blank1423d ago

Damn ain’t that crappy? Splash Damage have been a nice dev team with a lot of goodwill. One Tencent comes in, they will be forced to do stuff I doubt they would’ve done prior to Tencent buying the parent company. I hope a large portion of talent branches out to make a new dev team. Everything Tencent touches or creates ends up as watered down, money hungry shite.

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250°

Take-Two CEO Doesn’t Think AI Will Reduce Employment or Dev Costs; “Stupidest Thing” He’s Heard

Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick doesn't think AI will reduce employment or lower development costs, and calls it "stupidest thing" he's ever heard.

lodossrage1d ago (Edited 1d ago )

They already have AI trained to do coding.......

How he thinks it's stupid is beyond me, Especially since we see it happening in real time.

CS722h ago

Company A has 300 employees and lays of 200 to replace them with AI to release the same quality game.

Company B has 300 employees and keeps all 300 but instead uses AI to release a game with dramatically larger scale, scope, complexity, short dev cycle etc.

Company B would release a dramatically better product by using humans + AI and consumers would buy the better game.

I actually agree with this concept.

Huey_My_D_Long22h ago(Edited 22h ago)

This is key facet. Its how the AI is used. It's actually is impressive as is and really would make an amazing addition to alot of people in their jobs, not just tech. It also has the potential for businesses to use to lay off large amounts of people, as much as they could to save money on labor. I hope too many companies don't go with the latter. But since usually companies are worried about bottom line over people...we will see some try and hopefully fail. But yeah, if its to help workers like in your company B scenario I'm totally down...Just scared Company A may be too enticing to some ceos and businesses.

Darkegg21h ago

Value of AI and value of humans will both be increased with human-AI complex. Each, by themselves, will not be independently better than the other. Whether AI will ever be independent from humans is the fear question of humans, ironically because of our doing. At this stage, most of the doing is because of humans, not because of AI. AI is doing exactly that by our design, until we have failed ourselves with an AI development that went awry. The biggest take is that humans have only ourselves to blame when things become wrong, and we have to decide what is the ultimate goal with AI we want to accomplish. It would take a person with high morals and high ethics to make right of AI. I would not want businessman to decide what AI should do or what capabilities it can have. AI should be in the hands of people with high moral fiber, or those operating on love, kindness, and compassion.

BlackOni21h ago

AI is SUPPOSED to be used as a tool, not a replacement. It's designed to do two important things artists can take advantage of immediately.

- Make the ideation/reference imaging process much quicker and easier (basically using it as a google search)
- Make mundane and time consuming tasks faster and easier so more time is spent on creation.

Unfortunately, what many have done is used it as a way to replace rather than supplement.

Einhander197218h ago(Edited 18h ago)

CS7

In the ideal world yes.

In the real world where companies have shown little desire to innovate and spent every effort to maximize profits the end result will be the same quality games (if were lucky) made by less people and more AI.

Company Real World: Fires 200 people and makes the same game cheaper using AI and the executives get record bonuses.

Edit:

Lets look at history, specifically auto manufacturing.

In the 70's and 80's the auto unions tried to oppose automation of jobs (robots) stating that they would take peoples jobs. And the people in charge who wanted to make more money said the exact same types of things that are being said about AI. But we can look at history and see that countless types of jobs were in fact replaced by automation, that was of course even compounded upon by computers.

The net effect was that the rich got richer less jobs were needed so wages were forced down by competition for the jobs that were left.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 17h ago
Number1TailzFan22h ago

You can already make your own SFX with text prompts now as well, of course it will lower development cost and time

1Victor22h ago(Edited 21h ago)

WARNING WARNING ‼️ SARCASM AHEAD
Sure Strauss and robots didn’t take jobs from car factories.
Edit:Sad thing is he believes it and unfortunately he won’t be replaced for a long time by AI

senorfartcushion20h ago(Edited 20h ago)

He doesn't, he's just lying. These people lay people off so they can get bonuses. If AI takes jobs, their bonus goes bigger and the workforce goes smaller.

porkChop18h ago

Because he sees AI as a tool to aid development. He wants to use AI to help make bigger and better games in the same timeframe. Other CEOs want to replace devs with AI to cut costs and make lifeless games faster for a quick buck. Strauss has the right idea, this is how AI should be used. To extend and expand the capabilities of devs.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 17h ago
jambola1d ago

Ceo says stupid thing
Part 5837384

Zeref22h ago(Edited 22h ago)

I think maybe sometimes we give people in these positions too much credit when it comes to intelligence.

DarXyde2h ago

I think you mean candor, not intelligence.

If you take him to mean what he's saying at face value, sure.

I don't. And I think he's clearly lying.

romulus2322h ago

As long as it doesn't effect his inflated executive salary or his ridiculous bonuses I'm sure he's fine with it.

RNTody22h ago

Hahaha yeah trust the CEO suit over the actual developers making the games. Good one.

Show all comments (29)
80°

Warframe Jade Shadows Release Date and New Warframe Details Revealed; Soulframe Stream Announced

The Warframe Jade Shadows release date revealed for June 18 alongside new Warframe Jade details, and Soulframe's first-ever devstream.

200°

Sony shares big new PS Plus stat, but not the one we want to see

PlayStation Plus has improved the split of PS4 and PS5 players on its priciest tiers, but Sony continues to hide total subscriber numbers.

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theloadout.com
mandf2d ago

lol acting like it’s equivalent to ms numbers

Mr Logic2d ago

Uh...They're definitely not equivalent.

"Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass service now has 34 million subscribers."

"the total number of PS Plus subscribers across all tiers was 47.4 million"

darthv722d ago (Edited 2d ago )

That PSN number seems like it should be much higher... especially when you consider that PS4 alone has a sell through of over 117m. To not even be at least half that is rather interesting.

To the XB side, having 34m to an install base of roughly 50m (XBO sell through) or even 85m (360 sell through) is a greater percentage of unit to member ratio than PSN.

bloop2d ago

That's not the "gotcha" you think it is Darth.

darthv722d ago

^^it's not supposed to be bloop.... it's just an interesting observation.

Einhander19722d ago

darthv72

"That PSN number seems like it should be much higher... especially when you consider that PS4 alone has a sell through of over 117m. To not even be at least half that is rather interesting.

To the XB side, having 34m to an install base of roughly 50m (XBO sell through) or even 85m (360 sell through) is a greater percentage of unit to member ratio than PSN."

Have you ever heard of a PC before? I hear they are pretty popular.

fr0sty2d ago

MS started lumping gold subscribers in with those GP numbers... keep in mind.

+ Show (2) more repliesLast reply 2d ago
shinoff21832d ago (Edited 2d ago )

What. Definitely more os plus subscribers but that makes sense due to actual console sales

Darth the difference between the bases are huge your right but you gotta think. Ps players buy more games, where as the Xbox base relies on gamepass for their gaming. So it makes perfect sense

darthv722d ago (Edited 2d ago )

What makes perfect sense though? You say PS players buy more games... so then logically there should be more PS+ subscribers given the increased number of online multiplayer games in the PS4 generation alone. The PS4 was the first time that + was required for online play much like Gold was for 360 users.

Keep in mind we are talking subscribers, not simply XB/PS users. I assume you meant to say offline single player games, which is most likely true as well. That gen also saw a significant increase in games with an online component comparted to the previous gen.

victorMaje2d ago

I for one will be going back to essential at the next renewal. When I feel a game is good & right up my alley, I’ll check trusted reviews & just buy it.

jznrpg2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

I have the top tier until 2028 as they gave me a massive discount for all the years I had left but I’ll most likely go to essential as well. I buy my games but my kids do use the service occasionally. They do prefer to own their games as well since any game can leave the rental service at some point and they don’t like that idea. They mostly use it to demo games then ask me to buy games if they really like it.

RedDevils2d ago

For me, I will cancel it all together but unfortunately I still have it till 2030 lol

meganick2d ago

I would like to see Sony add a fourth tier of PS Plus for people who just want to be able to play games online without any of the perks like monthly games, store discounts, or anything like that, and it should cost $20 annually, $30 maximum. There’s no way I’m paying $80 just to play games online. Even the original $60 fee was too much, and I would often wait for sales to re-up my subscription.

P_Bomb2d ago (Edited 2d ago )

Essential is too expensive, I agree. We’ve got one Essential and one Premium sub. Dropping the Premium when it expires.

gamerz2d ago

Just let my subscription lapse for the first time since 2010. Will sub again every now and then for a month or so to access my old ps+ games but for me it's the end of an era.

DivineHand1252d ago

Let those numbers continue to drop because it is now too expensive. $80 per year just to play online. I noticed they didn't offer any discounts on the subscription or controllers during this year's days of play for the first time in many years and they will feel it when people choose not to renew.

My subscription will lapse next month and it will stay that way until further notice.

KevtheDuff2d ago

There were savings on subs and controllers here in the UK? I bought a controller yesterday in the sale..
It would be weird if those deals were not in other territories too?