US President Donald Trump just signed two executive orders that will effectively cut TikTok and WeChat from business relations with US companies and individuals. On the latter, the executive order will only affect transactions related to the messaging app. But it won’t affect other companies under the Tencent umbrella.
The LA Times reports that the clarification came from a White House official. And it’s a relief for many gamers, among other people. After all, Tencent holdings has ownership, partial and whole, of many video game companies. With the executive order not affecting these other companies, they will be able to operate as usual when WeChat gets hit by the banhammer.
Among these video game companies is League of Legends devs Riot Games, which is fully owned by the Chinese conglomerate. It also owns 40% of Epic Games, and 80% of Grinding Gear Games, the studio behind Path of Exile. The conglomerate also has single digit stakes in Activision Blizzard and Ubisoft.
Tencent has cast its net wide in the video game industry to say the least. Any executive order directed against it directly will likely shut down a major portion of the industry. It’s a good thing that it hasn’t come to that, as if it does it will ultimately affect us in unseen ways.
(Source: LA Times)
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