- Remedy Entertainment will be working on a new free-to-play shooter with Tencent
- The latter will co-finance the development and distribution
- Vanguard will also have a mobile version created and published by Tencent
Remedy is working on a new co-op shooter codenamed Vanguard and has signed a deal with Chinese media conglomerate Tencent for worldwide distribution.
The Two Companies Sign a Lucrative Deal
Remedy Entertainment announced on December 28 that it signed an agreement with Tencent regarding the development, licensing, and distribution of its next co-op multiplayer title, codenamed Vanguard. The game is not related to the similarly named Call of Duty game and is still in development. Despite the early stage of production, Remedy and Tencent have already agreed on who takes which steps are required at the international level.
The game will be a free-to-play title for the PC and is created with the Unreal Engine. According to the company’s official statement, the game “combines Remedy’s narrative expertise and action gameplay into an immersive multiplayer experience.”
CEO of Remedy Entertainment Tero Virtala said that Vanguard marks Remedy's first entry into the Games-as-a-Service business model. “We are building something new and exciting for co-operative multiplayer space, on top of Remedy’s strengths,” he added, explaining that the next step in the development of the company is to take up publishing responsibilities.
Tencent’s Involvement in the Deal
Tencent is a major Chinese media conglomerate and the largest gaming company in the world. It owns companies like Riot Games and Tencent Music and has over 600 investments, including 40% of Epic Games and 4% of Tesla. The conglomerate is also very involved in the booming mobile game market in Asia. In 2021, two games owned by the company, namely PUBG Mobile and Honor of Kings, were the most profitable mobile games of the year, each of which earned about $2.8 billion.
With such an impressive portfolio, it’s no wonder Tencent wants to continue its investments into gaming. The media conglomerate will co-finance Vanguard and will localize and publish the game in “selected Asian markets.” According to the deal, Tencent also receives the worldwide rights to develop and publish a mobile version of the game, however, they have to cover the development and publishing cost for that specific title.
Both parties have agreed to share a portion of the revenue from the game with the other party after the recovery of development costs. As for the mobile version of Vanguard, there will be a separate revenue scheme for that.
The deal follows Tencent’s acquisition of a 3.8 percent stake in Remedy, back in May 2021. It also marks yet another of the more than 100 video game-related investments that the Chinese conglomerate has made this year.
