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The
new studio, LightSpeed LA, will be led by former Rockstar
veteran Steve Martin and will focus on the development and
publishing of AAA titles, Tencent Games' LightSpeed and Quantum
Studios said in a statement to Reuters.
"We're ushering in a new era of game culture by combining
world-class development with a stress-free work environment,"
Martin said in the statement.
Tencent is trying to build an array of studios overseas with the
goal of creating content with original intellectual property
that has global appeal.
The launch is also the firm's latest move in a strategy to
derive half its games revenue from overseas, a category that
accounted for about 23% of its fourth-quarter online game sales.
The company has most recently hired Halo 4 lead designer Scott
Warner to head another newly-minted new studio grouped under
TiMi Studios, the maker of Arena of Valor and Call of Duty:
Mobile.
Tencent is also the owner of League of Legends creator Riot
Games, and has majority control of Clash of Clans maker
Supercell.
The new studio in Orange County has hired creative talent from
Rockstar Games, Sony VASG, Respawn Entertainment, 2K Games, and
Insomniac.
Last week, Tencent unveiled plans for more than 40 game
products, from a release of Mobile Dungeon & Fighter to an
unnamed Metal Slug mobile game in partnership with SNK Corp.
It also announced a cross-platform Pokemon team battling game
running on Nintendo Co Ltd's Switch console and on mobile.
Shares of Tencent Holdings soared more than 8% this week to a
historic high of HK$521 after the announcement of the new games.
(Reporting by Pei Li; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
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