Despite this move, Kuro Games will continue to operate independently.
Chinese tech and gaming giant Tencent is making huge investments once again. Reports from several Chinese outlets including Kejixun have shared that Tencent recently acquired 37% of shares of Wuthering Waves studio Kuro Games from Hero Entertainment and its subsidiary Tianjin Hero Financial Holdings Technology.
The transfer was made to two fully-owned Tencent subsidiaries, which include Guangxi Tencent Venture Capital Co., Ltd., increasing its holdings to 34.33%, and Shenzhen Century Huixiang Technology Co., Ltd., keeping their stakes at 17.07%. In total, Tencent now holds a 51.4% controlling stake in the company. This move also makes Tencent the only external shareholder of Kuro Games.
Tencent has established itself as one of China’s largest media conglomerates, armed with a significant presence in the gaming industry. The company also holds major shares in other big gaming companies like League of Legends and VALORANT developer Riot Games, PUBG Mobile developer Krafton, Clash of Clans maker Supercell and Fortnite developer Epic Games.
Tecent also has a minority investment in other gaming companies like Alan Wake and Control developer Remedy Entertainment, Don’t Starve developer Klei Entertainment, and even more gaming giants like Ubisoft, FromSoftware Inc., and Activision Blizzard, among others.
The gaming juggernaut has also started several subsidiary studios, which include LightSpeed Japan under former Devil May Cry game director Hideaki Itsuno.
Kuro Games is still operating independently
Despite this, Kuro Games has emphasised and reportedly reassured its employees in an internal memo that the company will operate independently. Tencent has also reportedly confirmed this, following a similar approach to its arrangements with companies like Riot Games and Supercell.
On top of this, Kuro Games expressed confidence that this development will provide a more stable external environment.
“In addition to our past experience of cooperating with Tencent, we firmly believe that after this external shareholder change, Kuro will have a more stable external environment, which will be more conducive to our future long-term development strategy of independent operation,” the developer stated.
Founded in 2014, Kuro Games has built a portfolio around two major titles. The first, Punishing: Gray Raven, an action RPG, has generated over $159 million in in-app purchase revenue on mobile (according to mobile analytics platform AppMagic), since its initial launch in December 2019.
The second, Wuthering Waves, achieved over 30 million pre-registrations before its May 2024 release. Its mobile version earned nearly $10 million in net revenue across iOS and Android platforms within just five days, and has since surpassed $126 million. The game also received nominations for Best Mobile Game at the 2024 Game Awards, and even won Best Audio and Visual at the Pocket Gamer’s Mobile Game awards.
Tencent’s acquisition appears well-timed, with Wuthering Waves Version 2.0 set to launch in January, alongside a PS5 release.
