Tencent, the Chinese internet service provider that owns League of Legends studio Riot Games and is possibly the biggest games company in the world, have announced their new investment in Milkytea Studios. Milkytea is a small team based in Liverpool, currently working on their third game, Hyperbrawl Tournament.
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In a press release circulated on Twitter, Milkytea’s founder and managing director Jonathan Holmes says “This partnership marks a turning-point in Milky Tea’s history.” The extent of Tencent’s investment in the company has not been made public, but Holmes says “It allows us as a team to focus on making the kind of high quality games that we’ve always dreamed of making.”
Milkytea are looking to bring their next game, Hyperbrawl Tournament, to PC and Nintendo Switch next year. Currently in pre-alpha, the game is “an arena based combat sports game” loosely based on handball. The studio’s previous game, Coffin Dodgers, is a cartoon racer featuring a cast of elderly drivers aboard mobility scooters.
Tencent’s plans for their investment in Milkytea are currently unknown, but it seems unlikely that they’re in it for the appeal of Hyperbrawl Tournament, and are probably just looking to widen their portfolio of games studios.