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[Kdad]

The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) has sent formal enquiries to US-based video game companies in which Tencent Holdings Ltd. holds a minority or majority stake, including Epic Games and Riot Games, over their data security practices. Tencent has over 300 investments across its portfolio, including major US gaming firms Activision Blizzard, Discord, Glu Mobile, and Roblox Corporation, along with technology and social media firms Reddit and Snapchat.

The scrutiny by CFIUS, which can recommend forced divestments, follows executive orders signed by President Donald Trump in August preventing US businesses from dealing with Bytedance and Tencent, although the latter was later clarified to only include its WeChat platform. As well as forced divestments, the move may force US studios to abandon publishing contracts with Tencent, similar to PUBG Corporation’s abandonment of its deal in India earlier in September following government-imposed bans against apps published by Chinese firms.

Speaking to Bloomberg, former CFIUS Deputy Assistant Secretary Aimer Mir commented, “When you’re talking about massive amounts of data, there’s probably something for the committee to look at. The question then becomes is the risk high enough that it actually warrants forcing deals apart.”

Tencent Gaming Draws US Scrutiny; Stillfront Acquires Nanobit - TheGamingEconomy.com

In today’s digest from TheGamingEconomy: Tencent gaming draws US scrutiny; Stillfront acquires Nanobit; and Bunch raises USD$20m (£15.4m).

www.thegamingeconomy.com

 

[Torrent of Pork]

Remember kiddos, any 'business' out of China is a de-facto member of the Chinese Communist Party. Every dollar you give them goes to fund concentration camps for minorities, and organ harvesting of living political prisoners.

 

[Birdo]

Remember kiddos, any 'business' out of China is a de-facto member of the Chinese Communist Party. Every dollar you give them goes to fund concentration camps for minorities, and organ harvesting of living political prisoners.

This includes many of the part suppliers of the PS5 and XBSX.

Doubt anyone here has the integrity to cancel their preorder though

 

[Torrent of Pork]

This includes many of the part suppliers of the PS5 and XBSX.

Doubt anyone here has the integrity to cancel their preorder though

You're not wrong.

 

[Cert.in.Death]

Which deals would they try to unravel? Epic is still primarily owned by Sweeney, so unless he’s using technology or apparatuses produced by Chinese firms, data siphoning likely isn’t happening purely because they hold a minority stake. Guess that’s what CFIUS wants to probe.

Appears that the Fed may want to complicate accepting foreign money from Chinese entities to simply make it more of a headache for them. Bundle as much red tape as you can into accepting their money and push businesses away from becoming involved. Seems kinda dumb to me, but dunno why they’re doing this now when it should’ve happened prior to the acquisitions anyway.

 

[DJT123]

PC Gamers were an asset to National (& indeed International) Security, giving Tencent Timmy at EGS what-for, long before it became the proper thing to do.

 

[M1chl]

You're not wrong.

Yeah buy nVidia, they are from Taiwan, which China despise.

 

[Bombolone]

Yeah buy nVidia, they are from Taiwan, which China despise.

Really? That's pretty cool. Makes skipping the new consoles and grabbing a 3000 series a bit more on the level.

 

[M1chl]

Really? That's pretty cool. Makes skipping the new consoles and grabbing a 3000 series a bit more on the level.

Well to be honest they are from USA, but Jensen Huang is Taiwanese.

 

[MrTroubleMaker]

Timmy loves the ccp

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

Will we see a GamerGate 2.0 / "gamers are dead" 2.0 when gamers start calling this out and the corpos + journos hurry to handwave it?

 

[fran.fernandez]

Yes

 

[CloudNull]

This is fantastic. I uninstalled all Riot games because of Tencent. Sucks because I miss playing Valorant but fuck China.

 

[johntown]

Which deals would they try to unravel? Epic is still primarily owned by Sweeney, so unless he’s using technology or apparatuses produced by Chinese firms, data siphoning likely isn’t happening purely because they hold a minority stake. Guess that’s what CFIUS wants to probe.

Appears that the Fed may want to complicate accepting foreign money from Chinese entities to simply make it more of a headache for them. Bundle as much red tape as you can into accepting their money and push businesses away from becoming involved. Seems kinda dumb to me, but dunno why they’re doing this now when it should’ve happened prior to the acquisitions anyway.

If Tim Sweeney was some upstanding person I might agree with you. He is driven by greed and you can see it through all of the controversial things Epic does. China uses American greed to get what they want. If China gave Tim enough money he would give them whatever they want.

 

[CuteFaceJay]

They own Discord? RIP ME!

 

[Kdad]

They own Discord? RIP ME!

It is privately held so its hard to determine what % of Discord is owned by Tencent. Tencent has been involved in at least 2 different rounds of funding though.

 

[Kerotan]

Bit of a coincidence that in this time of turmoil when the US is heavily targeting companies like Hawaii and Tik Tok Epic starts a lawsuit against the ultimate American company apple that would have huge ramifications for them and others like Google if they won. There's levels to this game.

 

[Kataploom]

They own Discord? RIP ME!

I'm just feeling the same

 

[thicc_girls_are_teh_best]

Good. I think it's frankly ridiculous that Chinese companies are allowed to invest in (and outright buyout) Western companies, but the inverse is banned by the CCP, last I checked. Who the hell agreed to that lopsided agreement?

Will we see a GamerGate 2.0 / "gamers are dead" 2.0 when gamers start calling this out and the corpos + journos hurry to handwave it?

They're probably already getting ready to do it. Sellouts xD.

 

[DunDunDunpachi]

They're probably already getting ready to do it. Sellouts xD.

What will it be?

"Gamers are entitled"?
"Gamers letting alt-right politics get in the way of good games"?
"Anti-chinese sentiments do not belong in the game industry"?

It'll be fun to see how it's spun and who does the spinning. Vox, Polygon, Kotaku, Scheieier et al are eagerly waiting.

 

[MiguelItUp]

It'll be fun to see how it's spun and who does the spinning. Vox, Polygon, Kotaku, Scheieier et al are eagerly waiting.

No kidding! I could see this getting very entertaining, lol.

 

[Kdad]

Bit of a coincidence that in this time of turmoil when the US is heavily targeting companies like Hawaii and Tik Tok Epic starts a lawsuit against the ultimate American company apple that would have huge ramifications for them and others like Google if they won. There's levels to this game.

Epic is doing Tencent's bidding. Look at what Tencent does with WeChat (also being banned in US as of Sunday) on the iOS platform in China...they've made Apple basically a hardware supplier (Apple played the game to try and stay relevant in China, they know that Fortnite (as a platform) is the thin edge of a wedge outside of China if they don't fight back). Chinese that use WeChat outside of China just boggle my fucking mind.

 

[Arkam]

Would be over the moon if Tencent was forced to sell all US assets that are above "N" ownership percentage (probably what makes them lose voting rights and access to technology/data). Fuck CCP and the atrocities they commit. US companies taking their blood money is disgusting.

 

[Kerotan]

Would be over the moon if Tencent was forced to sell all US assets that are above "N" ownership percentage (probably what makes them lose voting rights and access to technology/data). Fuck CCP and the atrocities they commit. US companies taking their blood money is disgusting.

I don't particularly like China or the US as the government's foreign policies are cuntish on both sides but the US is definitely the lessor of the two evils. Russias on par with the US.

BUT it would delight me if Tencent were forced out of the western part of this industry.