Athlon Games

Last updated
Athlon Games Inc.
Company type Division
Industry Video games
FoundedMay 24, 2018;6 years ago (2018-05-24)
Headquarters,
U.S.
Brands Telltale
Parent Leyou
Website www.athlongames.com

Athlon Games Inc. is an American video game publisher owned by Leyou and based in Los Angeles, California. Best known for acquiring a controlling stake in the successor to Telltale Games, [1] while also publishing SNK's weapon-based fighting game Samurai Shodown outside of Japan and China in 2019. [2] The company is currently set to co-publish The Wolf Among Us 2 with Telltale. [3]

Contents

History

On May 24, 2018, it was announced by Chinese holding company Leyou that they had formed a new publishing division for PC and Consoles called Athlon Games, the company would be based in Los Angeles, California and would help co-publish games with other companies. [4] In September 2018, Leyou had announced that they signed a deal with Middle-earth Enterprises to allow the company to develop and publish an online free-to-play game based on The Lord of the Rings. Amazon Game Studios (a division within Amazon) would join the project in July 2019, and would agree to co-develop and also publish the game globally, with Athlon set to publish the game in China and Taiwan. [5] Later that year Athlon had announced that they had become the publisher of Samurai Shodown excluding in Japan and China, while also becoming a shareholder of LCG Entertainment, a company that had acquired the assets of Telltale Games, while also announcing that they'd become the future co-publisher of all upcoming Telltale titles, starting with the release of Batman: Shadows Edition in December 2019. [1] [6] In December 2020, it was announced by Leyou that they'd be acquired by Tencent under their Image Frame Investment subsidiary. [7] On April 17, 2021, after several years in development, Tencent and Amazon had announced that when they had been in contract negotiations for the planned The Lord of the Rings game, a dispute had begun between the two, ultimately causing Amazon to cancel the planned title. [8]

Games

YearTitlePlatform(s)
PS4 PS5 Win XONE XSXS
2019 Samurai Shodown YesNoNoYesNo
Batman: Shadows Edition YesNoYesYesNo
TBA The Wolf Among Us 2 YesYesYesYesYes

References

  1. 1 2 Campbell, Colin (August 28, 2019). "Telltale Games is being revived". Polygon.
  2. "Samurai Shodown to be published by Athlon Games". Gematsu. March 7, 2019.
  3. "Telltale offers update on The Wolf Among Us 2, other IPs". December 10, 2020.
  4. "Digital Extremes' Chinese owner stealthily launches new US publisher". GamesIndustry.biz.
  5. McWhertor, Michael (July 10, 2019). "Amazon's making a new Lord of the Rings MMO". Polygon.
  6. "The Telltale Batman Shadows Edition Announced". GAMING.
  7. "Leyou shareholders approve Tencent takeover". GamesIndustry.biz.
  8. Gilliam, Ryan (April 19, 2021). "Lord of the Rings MMO canceled by Amazon". Polygon.