There’s a lot going on in the world of Back 4 Blood developer Turtle Rock today; not only has the studio announced it’s been acquired by Chinese conglomerate Tencent, it’s also just released the first big post-launch content update for its well-received co-op zombie shooter. The latter brings with it a range of tweaks and additions, the most notable of which is a much-requested solo offline mode with campaign progression.
First the acquisition news; as of today, following Tencent’s purchase of Turtle Rock’s parent company Slamfire, the studio is now wholly owned by the Chinese conglomerate. According to the announcement, Turtle Rock will continue to operate independently at its Lake Forest, California, offices, with co-founders Phil Robb and Chris Ashton remaining at the helm.
The news does, of course, further solidify Tencent’s already significant presence in gaming, with the company – which recently launched publishing division Level Infinite – already outright owning the likes of League of Legends studio Riot Games, Funcom, Splash Damage, Supercell, and Warframe developer Digital Extremes. And that’s not including the various publishers and developers it owns smaller stakes in, including Epic Games, Activision Blizzard, Ubisoft, Paradox Interactive, Remedy Entertainment, Frontier Developments, Dontnod, Bloober Team, Klei, Playtonic, Platinum Games, Roblox Corporation, and more.
Tencent says the acquisition will have no effect on the development of Back 4 Blood, which brings us to the second part of today’s Turtle-Rock-related news: the zombie shooter’s latest update and the introduction of its long-awaited solo offline mode with campaign progression.
On its release in October, Back 4 Blood was heavily criticised after players discovered that, even when playing solo with AI teammates, the game remained strictly always-online. Worse, restrictions to solo mode meant players wishing to go it alone were prevented from earning progress towards Accomplishments, earning Supply Points, and even tracking stats.