Changes are afoot at Path Of Exile builders Grinding Gear Games, as Chinese publishers Tencent have purchased a controlling stake within the Kiwi studio. Grinding Gear say that Tencent will assist them develop and enhance their action-RPG, with a number of expansions presently within the pipeline, and demand that the free-to-play recreation received’t change into ‘pay-to-win’.
“We will remain an independent company and there won’t be any big changes to how we operate,” they are saying. Hmm! Path Of Exile is a corker, going from energy to energy across updates, so it’ll be attention-grabbing to see how this develops.
The NZ Herald report that Tencent have nabbed an 80% stake in Grinding Gear for an undisclosed sum. But the builders are satisfied they’ll be left to their very own gadgets with the model we play.
“We spoke to CEOs of other companies that Tencent has invested in, and have been assured that Tencent has never tried to interfere with game design or operations outside of China,” Grinding Gear stated in an FAQ. “We retain full control of Path of Exile and will only make changes that we feel are best for the game.”
Tencent have their fingers in lots of pies. They outright own Riot Games, the makers of League Of Legends, and have a giant (although non-controlling) stake in Epic Games, the Unreal Engine and Fortnite Battle Royale mob. They even have small stakes in Ubisoft and the Elitists at Frontier Developments, amongst others.
As for the pay-to-win query, Grinding Gear reply “We will not make any changes to its monetisation on our international servers.” So… enterprise as regular for us? Grinding Gear do say Tencent might demand some particular options for the Chinese model, however that if these are good then they’ll roll them out worldwide too. At this level, Grinding Gears’s public stance could be very optimistic, considering this a superb match and alternative for them and the sport.
“We have been approached by many potential acquirers over the last five years, but always felt that they didn’t understand Path of Exile, or that they had other agendas (like signing users up to their services),” they are saying. “Tencent’s agenda is clear: to give us the resources to make Path of Exile as good as it can be.” This consists of hiring extra of us.
“We’re looking to increase our headcount over the next year from 114 full time employees to around 130,” Grinding Gear managing director Chris Wilson instructed The NZ Herald. “We’re planning to do more expansions for our games, in parallel, and of course bolstering the team will be really useful in achieving that.”
Righto boss, for those who say so.
