Athlon Games Inc. is an American

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ( ...

owned by

Leyou Leyou Technologies Holdings Limited ( zh, 樂遊科技控股有限公司; formerly Sumpo Food Holdings Limited) is a Chinese video game holding company based at Lippo Centre, Admiralty, Hong Kong. Founded in 2010, the company originally dealt w ...

and based in Los Angeles, California. Best known for acquiring a controlling stake in the successor to

Telltale Games Telltale Incorporated (trade name: Telltale Games) was an American video game developer based in San Rafael, California. The company was founded in July 2004 by former LucasArts developers Kevin Bruner, Dan Connors and Troy Molander, following ...

, while also publishing

SNK is a Japanese video game hardware and software company. It is the successor to the company Shin Nihon Kikaku and presently owns the SNK video game brand and the Neo Geo video game platform. SNK's predecessor Shin Nihon Kikaku was founded in 1978 ...

's weapon-based fighting game ''

Samurai Shodown ''Samurai Shodown'', known in Japan as is a fighting game series by SNK. The series began in 1993 and is known for being one of the earliest in the genre with a primary focus on weapon-based combat. Plot The stories in the series take place in ...

'' outside of Japan and China in 2019. The company is currently set to co-publish ''

The Wolf Among Us 2 ''The Wolf Among Us 2'' is an upcoming episodic graphic adventure game being developed and published by Telltale Games with the assistance of AdHoc Studio, a studio that consists of former Telltale staff. It is a sequel to the 2013 game '' The ...

'' with Telltale.

History

On May 24, 2018, it was announced by Chinese

holding company A holding company is a company whose primary business is holding a controlling interest in the securities of other companies. A holding company usually does not produce goods or services itself. Its purpose is to own shares of other companies ...

Leyou that they had formed a new publishing division for PC and Consoles called Athlon Games, the company would be based in Los Angeles, California and would help co-publish games with other companies. In September 2018, Leyou had announced that they signed a deal with

Middle-earth Enterprises Middle-earth Enterprises, formerly known as Tolkien Enterprises, is a subdivision of the Embracer Freemode division of Embracer Group and formerly a trade name for a division of The Saul Zaentz Company. The subdivision owns the worldwide exclusiv ...

to allow the company to develop and publish an online

free-to-play Free-to-play (F2P or FtP) video games are games that give players access to a significant portion of their content without paying or do not require paying to continue playing. Free-to-play is distinct from traditional commercial software, which ...

game based on ''

The Lord of the Rings ''The Lord of the Rings'' is an epic high-fantasy novel by English author and scholar J. R. R. Tolkien. Set in Middle-earth, intended to be Earth at some time in the distant past, the story began as a sequel to Tolkien's 1937 children's boo ...

.''

Amazon Game Studios Amazon Games (formerly Amazon Game Studios) is an American video game company and division of the online retailing company Amazon that primarily focuses on publishing video games developed within the company's development divisions. History I ...

(a division within

Amazon Amazon most often refers to: * Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology * Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin * Amazon River, in South America * Amazon (company), an American multinational technology c ...

) would join the project in July 2019, and would agree to co-develop and also publish the game globally, with Athlon set to publish the game in China and Taiwan. Later that year Athlon had announced that they had become the publisher of ''

'' excluding in Japan and China, while also becoming a shareholder of LCG Entertainment, a company that had acquired the assets of

, while also announcing that they'd become the future co-publisher of all upcoming Telltale titles, starting with the release of Batman: Shadows Edition in December 2019. In December 2020, it was announced by Leyou that they'd be acquired by

Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. () is a Chinese multinational technology and entertainment conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimedia companies in the world based on revenue. It is also the w ...

under their Image Frame Investment subsidiary. On April 17, 2021, after several years in development, Tencent and Amazon had announced that when they had been in contract negotiations for the planned ''The Lord of the Rings'' game, a dispute had begun between the two, ultimately causing Amazon to cancel the planned title.

Games

References

External links

Official website
{{Tencent 2018 establishments in California American companies established in 2018 American subsidiaries of foreign companies Companies based in Los Angeles Tencent Video game companies based in California Video game companies established in 2018