Tencent & the American Department of Defence
The reach of a small number of very big companies (and countries) that has been creeping through the videogames industry is something that I’ve written about in the past on Stage-Select; the concentration of developers under one mega-corporation is bad for a number of reasons, even more so if the umbrella these developers are under includes dangerous governments.
It seems the U.S.A. Department of Defence has some concerns too after the company Tencent was placed on their Section 1260H list. The list comprises entities designated as military companies. The list itself does not actually change Tencent’s legal status in the U.S.A., but there still appears to have been consequences for Tencent, with shares in the company dropping 7% afterward. Tencent has denied being a military company. Tencent owns shares in many companies including Epic Games, Activision Blizzard and Riot Games.
The ramifications for the massive increase in acquisitions from numerous questionable entities seem to extend beyond the realm of competition for videogame fans, their privacy and the creativity of the videogames industry as a whole; they include elements of national security.
Playing videogames, writing about videogames, considering videogames—that about sums it up. Videogames are the one hobby that I’ve kept since I was only little, zapping ducks on the NES or knocking out MR. X. And when I’m not enjoying classics from the bit generation of games or checking out those earliest of polygons, I’m probably playing something from today’s age of modern gaming: if I’m not complaining about it. Something I’m doing at the moment? Playing through Neo Dimension Fantasian.
