Tencent has acquired 90% stake in Wake Up Interactive for more than 5 billion yen (38 million euros), Bloomberg said, citing people familiar with the matter.
The Japanese studio owns the Tokyo developer Soleil, author of several hits for the Nintendo Switch ("Ninjala") or PlayStation4 ("Samurai Jack: Battle Through Time") console.
Tencent has suffered in recent months from new regulatory restrictions in China on video games and the tech sector.
The authorities have in fact imposed since the end of the summer a drastic weekly limit of three hours maximum of online video games to under 18s, in order to limit addiction among the youngest.
The Chinese group announced this week that its sales in the third quarter had increased by only 13% over one year, the slowest pace since 2004.
The takeover of Wake Up Interactive is one of several deals Tencent has made with Japanese video game makers this year, according to Bloomberg.
In September, Chinese video game makers, including Tencent, pledged to avoid any "politically harmful" content in their products and to enforce restrictions on minors.
Earlier this year, Tencent was forced to give up its exclusive music rights for streaming, the regulator accusing the company of carrying out an "illegal concentration of commercial operators."
© 2021 AFP