NetEase, one of China’s top players in the gaming industry, has acquired a minority stake in Behaviour Interactive, Canada’s largest independent video game developer, the company said in a press release on Monday. Neither company has disclosed the deal’s financial details.
Behaviour is a privately held company set up in 1992 in Montreal. It has created more than 250 titles, including multiplayer horror game Dead by Daylight and first-person adventure game Far Cry 3. The company’s mobile games have reached over 200 million players worldwide, said NetEase.
Ethan Wang, vice president of NetEase, said that the company “looks forward to leveraging Behaviour’s deep passion and expertise to enhance its R&D efforts and deliver even more exciting new products to players worldwide.”
NetEase claims in its first quarter financial report that the company has broadened its footprint beyond the Chinese mainland and deepened global reach. Tapping demand in Asia’s mobile game market, it launched Night Falls: Survival and Cyber Hunter in Japan in April. The company plans to release Ancient Nocturne in Japan and Korea this year.
NetEase booked RMB 11.9 billion (USD 1.8 billion) in revenue from its online games in the first quarter of 2019, up 35.3% year-on-year.