Under the deal, Tencent becomes Stunlock Studios’ majority shareholder, empowering the studio behind the critically acclaimed game Battlerite, with access to Tencent’s wide experience in the game industry and valuable development tools. At the same time, Stunlock Studios will maintain both its identity and corporate structure. The two companies began their collaboration back in 2016, when launching Battlerite in China.

In 2019, Tencent acquired a minority stake in Stunlock Studios. With this new, deepened partnership, Stunlock Studios will continue to develop games independently, while being backed by Tencent’s strategic support.

“It’s an honor to represent the biggest game company in the world from the small town of Skövde, Sweden. Tencent’s new investment shows a great deal of trust in us delivering quality titles with our focus on gameplay first. It will give us the opportunity to realize our grand vision for V Rising, our current game in development, and help us in future ventures, expanding long-term as a studio,” said Stunlock Studios CEO, Rickard Frisegård.

“We’ve known – and been highly impressed by – Stunlock for a long time,” said Michelle Liu, CEO of Tencent Games Global. “We continue to look to partner with the most-talented development teams in the world to bring the best-quality games to the industry.”

With around 30 employees, Stunlock Studios is one of the leading independent Swedish game developers in Skövde, best-known for arena brawler Battlerite. Since the launch of Battlerite, more than 6,5 million unique players have tried their luck in the arena, shooting Battlerite up to the peak of the top-selling, free-to-play games on Steam on several occasions. With a passion for multiplayer action games, the studio crafts groundbreaking and community-driven games, always with its players in mind. The studio is currently working on the Vampire Survival game V Rising.