Tencent buys Japanese game designer

SHANGHAI: Chinese games and messaging colossus Tencent Holdings has acquired the Japanese creative studio behind several hit Nintendo Switch titles, a report Friday said, as it seeks to recover from a government crackdown on the gaming sector.

Tencent has taken about a 90 percent stake in Wake Up Interactive for more than 5 billion yen (US$44 million), Bloomberg News reported, quoting unidentified people with knowledge of the deal.

Wake Up owns Tokyobased Soleil Ltd, which helped develop Nintendo Switch hits Ninjala and Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, Bloomberg said.

Tencent’s lucrative gaming empire has been battered by a state regulatory crackdown that has cut the amount of time school children are allowed to spend playing games.

Players under 12 are now restricted from making in-game purchases, and under-18s are locked out of games after two hours during holidays and after one hour on school nights.

Regulators have also slowed approvals for publishing new games as part of a broader crackdown on tech giants.

The Wake Up purchase, transacted in September, is one of several deals that Tencent has struck with privately-held game makers in Japan this year, Bloomberg said.