Back 4 Blood developer Turtle Rock Studios acquired by Tencent Games

Turtle Rock Studios has woken up in the safe house of Tencent Games, having been acquired for an undisclosed sum.

The Californian developer, previously responsible for the Left 4 Dead games and currently enjoying success with spiritual successor Back 4 Blood, was for a time under the ownership of Valve, where it became known as Valve South. It would appear Tencent won’t be enforcing a similar identity change, as the press release states that Turtle Rock will remain independent and the management team will continue to run all studio operations.

“We are huge fans of Turtle Rock’s games, especially their amazing approach to creating co-operative online games,” said Eddie Chan, Tencent Games’ chief strategy officer. “We can’t wait to see what comes next, and we’re excited to be part of their future.”

Steve Goldstein, Turtle Rock’s president, said: “We are all looking forward to joining the Tencent family of studios. Tencent’s outstanding partners, global reach, deep knowledge of gaming and unprecedented support will help us create the kinds of ambitious games we dream of, while allowing us to retain our autonomy and independent spirit.”

As well as picking up Turtle Rock, this year Tencent has invested in the likes of Klei Entertainment, DONTNOD, and Payload Studios. In the summer it looked to add Sumo Group to its acquisitions in a bid just shy of £1bn (US$1.27m). That deal is expected to be completed in January after recently meeting the approval of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS).