A source with knowledge of the situation has reported that the Chinese technology giant Tencent (0700. HK) has shut down one of its video game studios in the United States. This studio was considered an essential component of Tencent’s worldwide growth plan to become a competitive game developer for the Western market.
The firm, located in Shenzhen, China, terminated the operations of the United States-based video game studio Team Kaiju in June. The company’s employees have been moved to work on another game under Tencent, according to the individual, who declined to be named since the information is not publicly available.
The team known as Team Kaiju was working on a high-budget multiplayer game under the direction of an experienced game designer named Scott Warner before the company was shut down. The hiring of Warner by Tencent in 2020 was considered a significant move since Warner had directed successful films such as “Halo 4.”
According to Warner’s LinkedIn account, he parted ways with Team Kaiju in April. At this time, Team Kaiju’s website is not operational.
Tencent declined to comment on it. The suspension comes at a time when the Chinese corporation is trying to establish studios in other countries and produce video games geared toward consumers in those countries.
Around two hundred individuals at Tencent’s Lightspeed LA game studio worked on developing the Last Sentinel, the company’s most ambitious game for consoles, released earlier this month.
There is widespread recognition that Tencent is responsible for the development of successful mobile games such as PUBG Mobile, which are popular among Chinese gamers and are less expensive to create. Eurogamer.net initially revealed this news about the dissolution of Team Kaiju.
