Which game excited you the most at Gamescom?

I’m biased, but as a fan of the brand, I’m really looking forward to “Warhammer 40,000: Darktide” from our studio Fatshark.

What is the roadmap for Level Infinite and its studios to further growth?

It’s to be done in small steps. It will take some time to establish the Level Infinite brand first. But with our studio portfolio, we have a number of strong games in the pipeline. Our goal now is to bring those to market and maximize the success of the studios.

You’re talking about acquisitions. Again and again, you can read about major mergers and acquisitions in the games industry. Does Level Infinite’s appearance at Gamescom also serve to attract new takeover candidates?

We don’t see ourselves as players in the process of an industry-wide consolidation. The goal should not be to look for investment opportunities from the top down. Rather, we want to discuss from the bottom up which studios are interesting, show talent for good games. Should we think about an acquisition, we ask ourselves how we could best support these studios.

Did you talk to studios at the show that are interested in working with you?

We’re always looking for partnerships. It’s in our genes, so to speak. If we’re talking to someone, we don’t just want bigger pieces of the pie. No, we want to make the pie bigger for everybody. It’s always about helping the studio be more successful.

Tencent has minority stakes in many other major brands, such as Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft. Are these investments exclusively financial or is there also an exchange of ideas?

The investments are not exclusively a financial move. We invest in long-term partnerships. As for Activision, we initially developed “Call of Duty Online” with them before we were invested. After the investment, we developed “Call of Duty Mobile” together. So we make an investment if it makes sense for the collaboration. But of course, in the end, you hope that the investment pays off financially.

What is the added value for Tencent of the expansion of its stake in Ubisoft and Guillemot Brothers announced on Tuesday?

Ubisoft is a leading games company with many well-known box office hits. Its ability to consistently produce world-class entertainment leads us to believe that Ubisoft has a lot of potential for further growth.

What do the mergers mean for individual studios?

The market is re-sorting right now. The development costs for premium titles are much higher today than they used to be. That naturally leads to mergers. And if we can support a studio with triple-A ambitions with resources and technology, of course we can make those considerations. On the other hand, today’s technology allows one or two programmers to develop games, release them on all major platforms, and make a huge hit. That was almost unthinkable 15 years ago.