Tencent buys Clannad Publisher Visual Arts
VN publisher Visual Arts announced on Thursday that it will become a subsidiary of Chinese giant Tencent Holdings. The company’s current president, Takahiro Baba, is retiring and becoming a consultant for the company.
The new president of the company will be Genki Tenkumo, also known as Tohya Okano.
Baba explained in the blog post that the company saw its biggest earnings in its 33-year history in June, thanks to the hard work of the team and the performance of the mobile game Heavens Burn Red.
Tencent buys Clannad Publisher Visual Arts
He explained why he is retiring, although he is currently very healthy, he is now 63 years old. According to Baba, although the company is a corporation, the Baba family owns 100% of these shares as a private company.
As the company has no successor, if something were to happen to him, the company would have no choice but to close. Baba said that he wanted to prevent this from happening anyway. He stated, ”Of course Visual Arts will remain Visual Arts” even though it is becoming a subsidiary of Tencent.
Baba emphasized that Visual Arts did not go through intermediaries for the purchase, instead Baba and the team selected the company they felt was best for the future of Visual Arts.
Visual Arts was founded in March 1991. The company is known for publishing many visual novels and ”kinetic novels” under its Key imprint, including Kanon, Air, Clannad, Little Busters!, Angel Beats and more.
Source: ANN
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