Tencent takes full ownership of Riot Games

League of Legends developer Riot Games has sold the entirety of its remaining shares to Tencent.

“Riot’s approach to compensation has always been about aligning the incentives of the company with Rioters, and also about ensuring that we compensate our talented team of professionals well,” the company said.

“As a result of our continued growth and changing circumstances, we’re shifting to a new structure to recognize and reward Rioters’ contributions – and that first involves a big change to our existing equity program. As part of this effort, our majority investor, Tencent, recently purchased the remaining equity of Riot Games.

“This allows us to move away from a Riot equity program towards a cash based incentive program that allows Rioters to share in Riot’s success. This program comes in addition to our highly competitive salaries, open PTO, learning and development programs, 401K match, subsidized medical plans, and kitchens stocked with snax (poro and otherwise) all full-time Rioters get.”

Tencent, which is the world’s largest grossing games company, also owns 40 per cent of Gears of War developer Epic Games and has a sizable stake in Activision Blizzard, as well as a share of other companies including Glu Mobile, Miniclip and Robot Entertainment.