Riot Games has announced that the developer is now completely owned by Chinese investment company Tencent, known mostly for its MMORPGs. The developer of League of Legends made the announcement on its official site.
Riot stated in its announcement, ”As a result of our continued growth and changing circumstances, we’re shifting to a new structure to recognize and reward Rioters’ contributions - and that first involves a big change to our existing equity program. As part of this effort, our majority investor, Tencent, recently purchased the remaining equity of Riot Games.”
The reason Riot sold its remaining equity was to allow the members to get a financial slice of the League of Legends revenue pie. ”This allows us to move away from a Riot equity program towards a cash based incentive program that allows Rioters to share in Riot’s success. This program comes in addition to our highly competitive salaries, open PTO, learning and development programs, 401K match, subsidized medical plans, and kitchens stocked with snax (poro and otherwise) all full-time Rioters get,” explained the developer.
Tencent had been investing in Riot Games since 2008, when the company held just over 22% interest in the developer. It later won controlling interest in February 2011 for a cool $230M, owning 93% of the company equity til today.
