Tencent acquires Back 4 Blood developer Turtle Rock Studios

Tencent Holdings Ltd. has acquired Back 4 Blood developer Turtle Rock Studios’ parent company, Slamfire Inc.

Announced in a press release, the acquisition “will have no effect on Back 4 Blood.” That’s because Warner Bros. Games published the recent co-op zombie FPS. Likewise, Turtle Rock will retain “its independent operations out of Lake Forest, CA, USA, and its existing team will continue to run all studio operations.”

Turtle Rock president and GM Steve Goldstein stated that “Tencent’s outstanding partners, global reach, deep knowledge of gaming and unprecedented support will help us create the kinds of ambitious games we dream of, while allowing us to retain our autonomy and independent spirit.”

Over the last decade, Tencent has steadily acquired stakes in more and more video game developers and publishers. Its most notable acquisition was League of Legends and Valorant developer Riot Games, but Tencent also has a 40 percent stake in Epic Games, as well as varying stakes in Supercell, PUBG: Battlegrounds developer Bluehole, and 100 percent ownership of Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodhunt developer Sharkmob. Most recently, Tecent acquired Crackdown 3 developer Sumo Group for $1.27 billion.

Meanwhile, Back 4 Blood recently received one of its most significant updates, finally adding in a solo campaign. Our review of the game said that it “improves upon the gameplay formula of Turtle Rock’s earlier Left 4 Dead” but that “its characters lack the charm of its spiritual forebear, and a few curious design choices keep it just shy of greatness.”

Back 4 Blood is available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.