Time to end the conspiracy theory: Tencent DOES NOT own Epic

[Deuterium the Sentient Mattress]

At this point people are starting to sound like flat earthers, so it's time to lay down the facts:

Tencent does not own Epic.
Epic is not a subsidiary of Tencent, despite what Google's AI thinks.
Tencent has invested in Epic and has a 40% share in Epic, which is a minority share.
Epic was the one who approached Tencent for this share.
40% is a minority share.
This means they can appoint 2 members to the Borad of Directors, but they cannot dictate what Epic does.
They have no more access to Epic's data than any of their other, numerous investors.
Epic is still an independent company.

https://www.pcgamer.com/epic-boss-debunks-spyware-and-tencent-conspiracy-theories/
https://www.altchar.com/games-news/584711/epic-games-store-does-not-share-data-with-tencent

Furthermore, Tencent also owns shares in Riot Games, Discord and Bluehole. So if you play PUBG or League or use Dioscord, then congrats, Tencent has their fingers in those pies too.
https://globalcorporateventuring.com/tencent-fuels-discord-for-20m-round/
https://www.polygon.com/2015/12/16/10326320/riot-games-now-owned-entirely-by-tencent
http://www.koreaherald.com/view.php?ud=20180810000649

I am not being paid off by any of these companies, if I was I wouldn't need a student loan.
Call me "shill" and insinuate otherwise as you like, it won't make it any less true. I'm just saying it how it is.

I know this is not going to satisfy some. But I call on people at least to do some research beyond one guy on Reddit and think for themselves.

[periurban]

Publicado originalmente por Deuterium the Sentient Mattress:

Publicado originalmente por Space is the Place:

At some point you are going to have share where you get your exclusive inside info, because everywhere says 48,4%, EVERYWHERE.

Wikipedia.
Also Fortune:
http://fortune.com/2018/05/17/data-sheet-tencent-fortnite-china/
Variety:
https://variety.com/2018/gaming/news/fortnite-tencent-china-1202785279/
And VentureBeat:
https://venturebeat.com/2013/03/21/tencent-paid-330m-for-40-of-epic-games/

Quote from the lkatter which explains it better:
"Tencent bought 48.4 percent of the outstanding shares of Epic in June. That amounts to 40 percent of the company when you consider employee stock options.

$330m is small change for a company like Tencent. It will be interesting to see if they put more money into Epic, but they certainly seem to be spreading their net wide, probably hedging their bets.

[haganenoedward]

Publicado originalmente por Deuterium the Sentient Mattress:

Publicado originalmente por haganenoedward:

Finally someone who also brings up Social credit thing. That's the main reason why I don't want to buy the game through Epic. I don't want give them more money to do ♥♥♥♥ like that.

...DO you use Discord? PLay League? PUBG? Clash of Clans?
All invested in by Tencent.

No, I don't. I have discord, but I've used it literally for one call and after that nothing. But thanks for pointing that out, I'll probably delete it. The only thing which I know is from them and I use is WeChat and that's mostly to keep in contact with some of my Chinese friends, but I'm seriously thinking about deleting it.

[rojimboo]

Publicado originalmente por Mylar:

I asked that myself, result: crickets. I still want to see how many people uninstall Discord.

And stop using Reddit, I think Tencent owns some of that too lol

[Mylar]

Publicado originalmente por haganenoedward:

Publicado originalmente por Deuterium the Sentient Mattress:

...DO you use Discord? PLay League? PUBG? Clash of Clans?
All invested in by Tencent.

No, I don't. I have discord, but I've used it literally for one call and after that nothing. But thanks for pointing that out, I'll probably delete it. The only thing which I know is from them and I use is WeChat and that's mostly to keep in contact with some of my Chinese friends, but I'm seriously thinking about deleting it.

^Too late, data: mined. Result: par for the internet and not an Epic Game Store Exclusive.

[Starwight/ttv]

Publicado originalmente por Mylar:

I asked that myself, result: crickets. I still want to see how many people uninstall Discord.

Or any number of other things that Tencent has investments in. I love how literally nobody has anything to say about THAT.

[Mylar]

That's because those are sites they want to keep using :-)

[haganenoedward]

Publicado originalmente por rojimboo:

Publicado originalmente por NIK_F_S:

euhm, ok? didnt you just argue in the other direction before this? XD

? The US administration is scary, that's my point.

Dude, If you're unhappy with US president than you can vote for another one if a few years. If you're unhappy about Chinese government than you can do ♥♥♥♥ all but get out of the country. The current US administration is ♥♥♥♥, but it isn't borderline dictatoriship. China is.

[rojimboo]

Publicado originalmente por haganenoedward:

Publicado originalmente por rojimboo:

? The US administration is scary, that's my point.

Dude, If you're unhappy with US president than you can vote for another one if a few years. If you're unhappy about Chinese government than you can do ♥♥♥♥ all but get out of the country. The current US administration is ♥♥♥♥, but it isn't borderline dictatoriship. China is.

What with foreign election interference and controlling the public through social media fake news, I'd be surprised a vote means anything. Add to that gerrymandering and other unethical practices.

[haganenoedward]

Publicado originalmente por rojimboo:

Publicado originalmente por haganenoedward:

Dude, If you're unhappy with US president than you can vote for another one if a few years. If you're unhappy about Chinese government than you can do ♥♥♥♥ all but get out of the country. The current US administration is ♥♥♥♥, but it isn't borderline dictatoriship. China is.

What with foreign election interference and controlling the public through social media fake news, I'd be surprised a vote means anything. Add to that gerrymandering and other unethical practices.

Jesus...
I'm not saying that USA doesn't have tons of problems. But does USA have gulags? Maybe you could say Guantanamo bay, but that's it. China has thousands. Can you talk ♥♥♥♥ about Guantanamo on the internet or through media? Absolutely. Can you even mention Chinese gulags withtout the fear of repercussions? No. Can you complain about government in USA? Yes. Can you protest against the government of USA? Yes. If you do that ♥♥♥♥ in China then your ass goes to prison....
Do you think China has somebody like John Oliver? ♥♥♥♥ no they don't because he would be promptly frown in prison.....
I'm not saying that every single country but China is heaven without any problems at all. Hell, my a journalist in my country got murdered a year ago because he went against bloody oligarchs. But the thing is that there're countries who simply have more screwed up political system than others.

[NIKFS]

Publicado originalmente por rojimboo:

Publicado originalmente por Space is the Place:

At some point you are going to have share where you get your exclusive inside info, because everywhere says 48,4%, EVERYWHERE.

And regardless, if they only own 40% they are still the mayor share holder. THey could only have 15% and if the next one only owns 12% then Tencent would still be the mayor holder.

This isn´t a debate, this is basic maths.

Who cares?

You'd have to first prove that major stakeholders radically influence the publisher/dev/digital marketplace store front company in its decisions.

Then you would have to show that Tencent is unethical, immoral, and detrimental to have as a major stakeholder influencing decisions.

Then you would have to show that what the Chinese government (if they even get acccess to the market research data from gamers) does something more nefarious than what the US government does.

Good luck!

Remember. Orange China bad.

"major shareholders dont affect business strategies"

what? have you been paying attention to the recent changes in game development? aka games as a service or microtransactiong boogaloo? thats due to shareholders pressing the developers into adding such stuff in to get more money out of it, sometimes against the developers who by now (some of them that is) realized this alienates players and can ruin your devstudio

[....]

Publicado originalmente por Coldhands:

Publicado originalmente por .:

Yeah because individual e-mails will change anything ...

Also yeah social-media-accounts never delete postings of users ...

So, first of all, you think email is social media. I feel like that kinda makes my point for me right there.

I think you should go back to school - you seem to be unable to read ...

"speaking directly" almost every time includes e-mail therefore i wrote about e-mail and social media ...

[Starwight/ttv]

Publicado originalmente por .:

Publicado originalmente por Coldhands:

So, first of all, you think email is social media. I feel like that kinda makes my point for me right there.

I think you should go back to school - you seem to be unable to read ...

"speaking directly" almost every time includes e-mail therefore i wrote about e-mail and social media ...

Email IS a form of social media though. Coldhands needs to go back to school, not you lmao

[rojimboo]

Publicado originalmente por haganenoedward:

Publicado originalmente por rojimboo:

What with foreign election interference and controlling the public through social media fake news, I'd be surprised a vote means anything. Add to that gerrymandering and other unethical practices.

Jesus...
I'm not saying that USA doesn't have tons of problems. But does USA have gulags? Maybe you could say Guantanamo bay, but that's it. China has thousands. Can you talk ♥♥♥♥ about Guantanamo on the internet or through media? Absolutely. Can you even mention Chinese gulags withtout the fear of repercussions? No. Can you complain about government in USA? Yes. Can you protest against the government of USA? Yes. If you do that ♥♥♥♥ in China then your ass goes to prison....
Do you think China has somebody like John Oliver? ♥♥♥♥ no they don't because he would be promptly frown in prison.....
I'm not saying that every single country but China is heaven without any problems at all. Hell, my a journalist in my country got murdered a year ago because he went against bloody oligarchs. But the thing is that there're countries who simply have more screwed up political system than others.

Thank you for making my point.

Politics, especially based on misinformation and fake news, should never enter the equation when buying entertainment goods like vidya games.

[Whiplash]

Publicado originalmente por .:

No one even said they were owend by Tencent.

a metric ton of people have claimed they are owned by Tencent.

[BAITness]

I am not particularly concerned about TenCent, they have been one of the most hands off investors in games for years. I am concerned about the lack of features and security of the epic games store.

If it were a directly owned TenCent property, then I would be concerned as the CEO's ties to the government are well established and not at all hidden. But everything I have heard about them as far as investing goes has been good.