Nintendo spent several decades building up game franchises and characters from nothing, elevating a tiny Italian plumber from a few blocky pixels to a household name.
Tencent is taking a decidedly different tactic: Investing in, and/or buying up, major game makers.
For instance, Tencent outright owns Riot Games — the Los Angeles-based studio responsible for two of the world's biggest games: "League of Legends" and "Teamfight Tactics."
Tencent also owns a substantial portion of Epic Games (specifically, a 40% stake) — the North Carolina-based company behind "Fortnite," the Epic Games Store, and the software suite that powers a huge portion of gaming (Unreal Engine). It also owns the majority of Supercell (84%), the Finnish mobile gaming powerhouse behind "Clash of Clans," "Clash Royale," and "Brawl Stars."
And that's just for starters: Tencent also has minority stakes in "Call of Duty" publisher Activision and "Assassin's Creed" publisher Ubisoft.
Simply put: Tencent's gaming portfolio is massive.