Tencent Buys Dying Light Developer Techland

Estimated reading time: 2 minutes

Tencent announced it’s buying Polish developer Techland, the studio behind the original Dead Island and the Dying Light series.

In a blog post, Techland CEO Pawel Marchewka announced that Tencent “is currently in the process” of becoming the studio’s majority shareholder. “Teaming up with Tencent will allow us to move full speed ahead with the execution of the vision for our games,” Marchewka explained. “We have chosen an ally who has already partnered with some of the world’s finest video game companies and helped them reach new heights while respecting their ways of doing things.”

Marchewka insisted that even though Tencent will own the studio, Techland will retain full ownership of its intellectual properties, maintain creative freedom, and continue operating independently.

Marchewka founded Techland in 1991. The studio found fame for first-person shooter series Call of Juarez. In 2011, Techland hit the mainstream with open-world zombie game Dead Island and its sequel Riptide. The studio then split from publisher Deep Silver, who owns the Dead Island IP, citing creative differences, and in 2015 released Dying Light, a spiritual successor to Dead Island. Most recently, Techland released Dying Light 2: Stay Human.

Tencent is on something of a spending spree. In 2022, the Chinese mega-corp bought Sumo Group, the developer behind Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and Wake Up Interactive. In December Tencent announced its intention to buy Back 4 Blood and Left 4 Dead developer Turtle Rock Studios.

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.