Tencent Now Complete Owner Of League Of Legends Dev Riot Games

Tencent Holdings, a large Chinese media and investment company, has purchased Riot Games remaining equity. The company purchased a majority stake in the League of Legends developer in 2011, but now completely owns the MOBA studio.

The news was announced on December 15, as Riot shared with employees a change to its equity program. In addition to compensation, many companies offer employees an ownership share.

In addition to Riot, Tencent has a minority stake in Epic Games. It also participated in the Activision buyout from Vivendi and recently acquired a stake in Orcs Must Die Unchained developer Robot Entertainment.

[Source: Riot]

Our Take
To operate in China, you need a partner in that territory. Tencent has made it a mission to be the bridge between Western developers and its home country. This won’t result in any sweeping changes for League or Riot (Tencent already had a majority interest), but it does now formally bring the MOBA developer into the fold.