A merger is not something new in the gaming world. Square Enix has done it with Crystal Dynamics, and now Chinese company Tencent has acquired League of Legends developer Riot Games.

According to Verge, Tencent acquired most of Riot Game's League of Legends stake in 2011, but now, the company has pushed through in acquiring all of Riot Game's rights. While the finance side of the deal has everything to say about the merger, Riot Games say that they will continue to ensure that Riot will remain a great place to work.

 

Part of Riot's the statement said, "As a result of our continued growth and changing circumstances, we're shifting to a new structure to recognize and reward Rioters' contribution -- and that first involves a big change to our existing equity program. As part of this effort, our major investor, Tencent, recently purchased the remaining equity of Riot Games."

Riot Games has been very consistent in their work on the League of Legends. In fact, this has been the only game they have developed since 2009. Since its launching, over 67 million players have played the game and the company was able to build its own studios in several regions such as Berlin and Tokyo.

Tencent, on the other hand, has built an empire taking on several Western-based developers such as Epic Games and Glu Mobile. Epic Games is responsible in the success of Gears of War while Glu Mobile is the developer behind the mobile game Katy Perry Pop. Tencent has also made its way to becoming a much more successful developer by partnering with Blizzard and Activision. Together, they launched the online version of the Call of Duty video game series.

Tencent has not given any specific plans despite the acquisition of Riot Games. According to Attack of the Fan Boy, it may be because the company doesn't want to alter anything that will hinder the success of Riot Games' League of Legends.

League of Legends is currently one of the most successful online games worldwide, probably one of the reasons why its unprecedented success has been the one thing Riot Games relied on while they keep developing it. Looking through the League of Legends website, the game is about to receive some massive updates as well as overhauling.

What do you think of the merger between Riot Games and Tencent? Do you think they will be able to work on other online games once everything is settled?