Tencent acquires Japanese visual novel company Visual Arts

Chinese gaming giant Tencent announced that it’s acquiring Visual Arts, a Japanese company widely known for publishing and distributing visual novels, as reported by Pocket Gamer.Biz.

Founded in 1991, the Osaka-based company also created game engines used by visual novel makers, including the latest one named ‘Siglus’, and previous ones ‘RealLive’ and ‘AVG32’.

Through the acquisition, Takahro Baba is stepping down as the company’s chief executive officer, transferring his shares to Tencent, and his role to Genki Tenkumo. However, Baba will remain at Visual Arts as an advisor.

 “I want to run this wonderful company forever if I can. But, as expected, I am 63 years old this year,’’ Baba said in a statement. ‘’Of course, I’m in good health now, and I still want to work, but I’ve reached an age where anything can happen at any time.’’

‘’By the way, if something happens to me, even though it is a stock company, it is a private company with 100% of the shares owned by the Baba family, and there is no suitable successor, so I will not take over the company. There is no other way but to fold it. If that happens, not only the activities and future of the company, but also the rights to wonderful works and songs can be wiped away. No, it should be avoided at all costs,’’ he added.

Also Read: The 5 Best Visual Novels for Android

The news follows Tencent’s acquisitions of Dying Light-maker Techland and Destruction AllStars-developer Lucid Games that both took place earlier this month. The Chinese tech giant also acquired a 20% stake in South Korean developer Shift Up in December.

Meanwhile, app analytics company data.ai recently named Tencent as last year’s top mobile publisher by consumer spend.