Tencent is currently the owner of two potential websites for System Shock, hinting at a possible stake at the title.
According to a report from VGC, the ownership of the websites moved from Otherside Entertainment to the Chinese company last week. The creeping movement of Tencent within the global gaming landscape is deep.
The company, which is the second biggest Asian company by market value, has investments all over. Some of its portfolio in the gaming industry include Activision Blizzard, Epic Games, and Ubisoft.
Two websites moved ownership from OtherSide to Tencent Holdings
As per the report, the websites SystemShock3.com and SystemShock4.com moved their domain ownership. Until last month, registrations were under OtherSide Entertainment director Paul Neurath. The ownership has now moved to Tencent Holdings Ltd.
At the time of this writing, the domain ownership for both websites are under a brand protection agency. Even then, the chances of Tencent Holdings investing in System Shock is very likely.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqbDh__FoCU&feature=youtu.be
Last year, OtherSide’s Warren Spector said he was looking for publishers. Spector said the dev company was looking to sell the publishing rights for System Shock 3.
He said that negotiations ran smoothly and that they were “talking to a lot of partners and we have a lot of interest.”
During this time, the studio was more than willing to finance the development of the game. The problem comes from publishing, which has its many pitfalls. This area is why Tencent makes sense.
OtherSide financial issues last year could’ve pushed for partnership
The Chinese company has publisher experience and among the biggest ones in the world. They have their own digital distribution platform in the form of Epic Games. They also have the financial clout to handle the publishing, with its $490 B market value.
Throughout last year, OtherSide was the subject of many controversies. For starters, the company was silent in many social channels last year.
There is also a highly publicized series of layoffs from the company. Many employees moved out of the company, including OtherSide Boston’s VP for business development Walter Somol.
OtherSide’s potential partnership with Tencent Holdings means a few things. First, if the Chinese company is the publisher, this can make System Shock 3 an EGS exclusive.
The Chinese company’s deep wallets can give OtherSide more creative freedom with the project. The size of the publishing power they will have can help fund longer production cycles.
Tencent is a publisher for the industry, including a bevy of mobile games. They also have a wide stake in many game development studios worldwide.
Images courtesy of OtherSide Entertainment/Youtube Screenshots