Tencent Games just announced that its Venture Lab unit will expand its support and capabilities to help early-stage game developers grow faster and healthier. Hong Kong-based Juno Shin, a Tencent veteran, will now head up Venture Lab globally.
Venture Lab aims to provide early-stage studios with the investment, expertise, tools, and network they need to develop their games, bring them to market, and drive them to success.
Tencent Games’s Development of the Industry
The move signals Tencent Games’ deepening commitment to the development of the global video game industry at large. Shin, who previously led business development and investment across Europe and Japan for Tencent Games, will lead an established team of seasoned industry professionals who have decades of hands-on experience within the industry and will be able to provide invaluable insight to the next generation of developers. Specifically, Venture Lab services will include publishing, marketing, production, consulting, technology, game data science, and onsite support.
Martin Sibille, the Level Infinite Vice President of Global PC and Console Publishing, said:
“By fostering a collaborative and supportive ecosystem, we are building an open platform to support the growth and success of the industry. We are proud of the team and momentum we have built in the last two years. We are excited about the pipeline to support upcoming games, such as Sharkmob’s Exoborne and others that will excite and engage global gamers.”
Early-stage game developers are one of the fastest-growing segments of the entire industry and a crucial one to cultivate and sustain. Game platform Steam saw a 12.6% jump in the number of indie games released between 2022 and 2023. Many of those games came from small teams or solo developers who were new to the industry and just beginning to get their toes wet. Early-stage games funding hit a twelve-month high in 2024, with over 90% of venture capital funding going to early-stage startups since the end of 2022. The 2024 GDC State of the Industry Report noted that 40% of respondents identified as early-stage game developers, an incredibly high percentage of participants.
Examples of Venture Lab’s Success
Eleventh Hour is one such early-stage developer who partnered with Venture Lab for its action role-playing game, Last Epoch, which was launched earlier this year. It has reached immense levels of success, becoming the sixth highest-played game in Western Europe’s top-grossing Steam games for Q1 2024.
Similarly, Venture Lab also played a pivotal role in German studio Keen’s latest game rollout. The Go-To-Market strategy for the game Enshrouded contributed greatly to its successful launch in January 2024. The survival game hit three million players earlier this month (Aug) and is currently sitting at 4th in Western Europe’s top-grossing Steam games in Q1 2024.
Venture Lab is a part of Tencent Games’ global strategy initiative to support growth and spur innovation within the video games sector. Regardless of studio size, platform focus, genre expertise or location, Venture Lab’s goal is to provide support and ultimately generate a more diverse, more varied market.
In December 2021, it launched Level Infinite, a publishing brand that focuses on delivering high-quality games across multiple platforms to players worldwide. Level Infinite works with a wide range of global studios to help them bring their games to market, offering everything from strategic advice to bespoke capabilities to full publishing services.
Head of Venture Lab Globally, Juno Shin stated:
“The industry landscape is changing. We’re seeing a lot of smaller developers who are looking for much-needed support and expertise in their growth journey. Having spent the last decade driving Tencent Games business development and investment, I have first-hand experience of what it takes for an early-stage game developer to be successful. At Venture Lab, we work with these early-stage studios to help them solve bottleneck problems or fill in missing capabilities to maximize their potential. We’re building a team of experts and veterans who can provide the right support to move these early-stage developers through the lifecycle towards building successful games.”
