Feb 8, 2011 20:01 GMT  ·  By

Tencent Holdings, one of the most important Internet-oriented companies operating on the Chinese market, delivering instant messaging services, social networking and online video games to its customers, has acquired a controlling stake in developer Riot Games, the creator of League of Legends.

Brandon Beck, who is the chief executive officer of Tencent, has told Gamasutra that, “Technically it's an acquisition - Tencent is acquiring a majority stake in the company. It's unusual as acquisitions go, in the sense that there's an incredible amount of autonomy and independence that both companies are trying to create, which is critical to us.”

It seems that Riot Games will not be turning into a North American based outpost for Tencent, a company that already has a presence in the country, the League of Legends developers will be able to sell their title and any future developments on the European and on the North American markets.

The Tencent CEO says that the two companies share a philosophical view of the video-game world and that the investment is in part designed to make sure that the Chinese version of League of Legends is as good as it can be.

AllThingsD, a source that is associated with financial news, suggests that Tencent might pay a little under 400 million dollars in order to get ownership of Riot Games, buying out other investors like Benchmark Capital and FirstMark Capital.

It seems that initial investment in Riot Games was of about 18 million dollars.

League of Legends is inspired by the very popular Defense of the Ancients mod for the rather old game Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.

The game has made changes to the map, has introduced a variety of new heroes and has updated the gameplay.

The game was launched in late 2009 and it has a certain appeal for the South Asian market because of its free to play and micro transaction structure.