A new report from the Swedish outlet Dagens Industri (DI) has revealed that Tencent — a Chinese multimedia company with massive investments in the gaming industry — recently acquired a minority stake in Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios.
According to the report, the conglomerate bought 15.75% of the Stockholm-based studio's shares in July 2024 for close to $83 million, with Arrowhead in its totality valued at approximately SEK 5.1 billion ($532 million). Notably, the rest of the developer's shares are held by its founding executives.
It was also revealed that in 2024, Arrowhead raked in SEK 959 million ($100 million) in profit, with an operating profit of SEK 729 million ($76 million). Helldivers 2 was a huge success, as the $40 co-op multiplayer shooter sold 12 million copies in three months, became the fastest-selling PlayStation Studios game ever, and has remained a popular title on Windows PC and PS5 well over a year after release.
Arrowhead's chief creative officer, co-founder, and former chief executive officer Johan Pilestedt gave some statements about Tencent's minority acquisition, explaining that the investment will help the developer perform well in the Chinese gaming market.
"Getting access to the Chinese player base is the holy grail in the gaming industry," he said. "They can give us enormous economic leverage."
At present, it's unclear what the scope of Tencent's involvement with Arrowhead and its games will be. It's important to mention, though, that the studio recently said on the Helldivers Discord server that its next game will not be published by PlayStation and that it's "100% funded by ourselves so we'll call 100% of those shots."
It's also worth noting that Helldivers 2 has attracted a very large and passionate Chinese community. Chinese players played a pivotal role defending Equality-on-Sea — a city located within the game's fictional version of China — from the Illuminate in the Battle for Super Earth. A social media account for China's United States embassy posted about the event earlier this week.
Notably, the news of Tencent's purchase last year comes a little over two months after a rumored partnership between Ubisoft and Tencent came to fruition, with the French publisher selling the company a 25% stake and opening a new division for its Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six franchises. The move was largely seen as part of Ubisoft's efforts to recover from a series of underperforming releases in recent years.
What's next for Arrowhead?
It's rather surprising that this partnership between Tencent and Arrowhead went under the radar for nearly an entire year, but regardless, it sounds like it's going to help the latter quite a bit as it looks to the future. It's certainly difficult to dispute Pilestedt's comments about opportunities in the Chinese market after watching Black Myth: Wukong rise to monumental success.
Naturally, I can't help but wonder about what's next for Arrowhead. Helldivers 2 is still getting live-service updates and I don't expect that to change for a long, long time, but it's also clear that the developer is working on its next project, too. Whatever it is, I'll be there for it; Helldivers 2 is one of my favorite co-op games of all time, so with its creators, I'm along for the ride.
Helldivers 2 stands tall as one of the best PC games and best PS5 games to play if you're into co-op shooters, intense sci-fi action, goofy physics antics, and goofy satirical writing. It's typically $40, though you can often get it for less if you shop around for discounts. Right now, the best one is CDKeys' sale that shaves nearly $12 off the price, allowing you to get the bombastic title for just over $28.
