Marvelous has officially terminated its six-year partnership with Tencent, resulting in the immediate cancellation of the Story of Seasons mobile game that had been in development since 2019. On July 31, the Japanese publisher's board voted to end its alliance with Image Frame Investment, a Hong Kong-based subsidiary of the Chinese tech giant.
Image Frame originally acquired a 20 percent stake in Marvelous back in May 2020 for approximately $65 million (£48 million). This significant investment made the Tencent subsidiary the largest shareholder in the company, which is best known for developing the Story of Seasons and Rune Factory franchises.
The mobile adaptation was scrapped after Tencent pulled the plug, citing the current "business environment and profitability" as the primary reasons for the cancellation. Despite the split, the underlying 2019 license agreement remains intact, meaning Marvelous is legally free to seek a different mobile partner in the future. The publisher also confirmed that the upcoming console entry for the franchise remains completely unaffected by the corporate restructuring.
This separation aligns with recent reports that Tencent is actively re-evaluating its stakes in several Japanese video game developers, including the creators behind Monster Hunter Stories. The conglomerate is currently negotiating exits from multiple Japanese studios as part of a global portfolio reassessment amid an ongoing economic slump in the gaming industry.
Conversely, Tencent is shifting its focus toward massive Western partnerships to secure future growth. Last year, the company partnered with Ubisoft to establish Vantage Studios, a subsidiary that now manages many of Ubisoft's biggest franchises and represents the scale of revenue Tencent is currently targeting.
Tencent's Strategic Retreat from Japan
The collapse of the Marvelous partnership signals a broader, aggressive shift in the global mobile gaming market. When Tencent dropped $65 million into the Japanese publisher in 2020, it was a calculated bet on adapting beloved, cozy Japanese IPs for the highly lucrative Chinese and global mobile ecosystems. However, explicitly citing "profitability" for the cancellation highlights just how saturated and expensive the mobile space has become over the last four years.
By unwinding its investments in mid-tier Japanese studios and pivoting toward massive Western collaborations like Vantage Studios, Tencent is clearly prioritizing guaranteed blockbuster revenue. The era of tech giants buying up minority stakes in AA studios just to experiment with mobile spin-offs appears to be ending, replaced by a demand for immediate, massive-scale returns.
