Tencent is reportedly looking to exit several Japanese game studio investments, even at a loss

Tencent is reportedly in negotiations to sell off minority stakes in multiple Japanese game studios as part of a broader reassessment of its global portfolio.

The details:

• As reported by Bloomberg, the Chinese gaming giant is evaluating holdings across several Japanese developers and is in some cases prepared to sell stakes back to original management teams, even if it means taking a financial loss.
• Marvelous, the publisher behind Story of Seasons and Senran Kagura, is among the studios named. Tencent built up a number of minority stakes in Japanese developers around 2020 as part of an acquisition push that also included Wake Up Games.
• PlatinumGames and FromSoftware, also recipients of Tencent investment, are reportedly not part of the exit discussions.
• The strategic reasoning behind the shift appears to be twofold: Tencent is navigating an industry-wide gaming slump while accelerating AI investment to compete with domestic rivals Alibaba and ByteDance, with its focus reportedly moving toward user-generated content platforms like Minecraft and Roblox.
• No talks have been officially confirmed by Tencent, which has not commented publicly. The discussions could still fall apart or be restructured.