Chinese game developer Tencent has acquired Slamfire, the parent company of Back 4 Blood developers, Turtle Rock Studios. In one statement of acquisition, Turtle Rock said that “the Back 4 Blood franchise is still here, and we’ll do good work on it going forward.”
“By joining the Tencent family, we will not only gain access to their vast resources and expertise, but will also find a partner that encourages us to be ambitious and visionary. far,” the statement read. “Although our company is being acquired, we will remain independent and continue to be run by our co-founders, Phil Robb and Chris Ashton.”
“We’re growing our team to support Back 4 Blood and develop an exciting new multiplayer experience. We’ll continue to communicate transparently with all of you, providing updates on all of this. both our progress through the Trello board and expanding on what makes Back 4 Blood so special.Also, we had to do something we’ve never done before as a studio: turn a dancer pillar we’ve built into a truly longstanding AAA brand.”
Turtle Rock has a long history. Originally founded in 2002 by Michael Booth, the small studio contracted to work for Valve on games like Counter-Strike: Condition Zero and Source before creating and working on Left 4 Dead and its sequel. its. In 2008, the studio was acquired by Valve and renamed Valve South. Many of its developers later moved to Valve’s Seattle HQ, and Valve South closed it, with some of its original developers refounding Turtle Rock as an independent studio.
They have since released Evolve, originally sponsored by publisher THQ before they went bankrupt, and Take-Two picked up the copyright. Development sinks on release. This year, Turtle Rock released Back 4 Blood with Warner Bros. It’s a developer’s history with enough ups and downs and company twists to make me think: yes, I understand the appeal of stable and wealthy owners.
Tencent has made a mark of wanting to buy studios and then let them operate relatively independently. This early year Imogen gives a list of studios in which Tencent owns shares, and long list.
Back 4 Health already has one content roadmap extends to 2022, which includes a new free co-op mode and difficulty level, and three paid expansions covered by an annual £35 ticket.
