Tencent buys a piece of Arma developer Bohemia Interactive

Tencent's latest investment in Bohemia Interactive has given the publishing giant a minority stake in the Arma and DayZ developer.

Bohemia announced the news in a press release earlier today, noting that the renewed investment won't affect its ability to operate independently—nor will it change any seats on the studio's management team. 

Rather, it looks like this is an extension of Tencent's existing partnership with Bohemia. The Chinese mega-publisher has been working with the studio for some time, though Bohemia last year shot down reports that Tencent had acquired a majority share in the developer. 

Hinting that more "strategic cooperation" was on the cards, it now looks like the two have formalised a relationship with Tencent's new minority stake in Bohemia.

"We are pleased to deepen our relationship with Tencent, one of the most significant internet companies in the world," said Bohemia CEO Marek Španěl. "We look forward to working on our current and future generations of games with the support of a strong partner that has known us for many years and understands our unique approach to online games."

While Bohemia is probably best-known for its very-serious Arma soldier simulators, Tencent apparently has its eyes on Ylands. The publisher has been distributing the PC/Mobile creation sandbox on its WeGame platform for some time now.

So, Tencent might not own the Czech milsim maker outright. But it does have a fair few companies in its oversized pockets, recently snapping up Warframe developer Digital Extremes and acquiring a majority stake in Klei Entertainment. Overall, the firm invested in 31 games companies last year, the bulk of which were smaller Chinese developers.