Anyone who knows fighting games knows the letters SNK — mostly because the company was responsible for some of the genre’s most notable franchises. But those days have long since passed; SNK Playmore may have brought the world King of Fighters XIII back in 2010, but now they’re moving on to a whole new stage — because the company has been bought out.
A Chinese company purchased more than 80% of SNK Playmore’s shares for a grand sum of $63.5 million. As a result, the majority stake is now in the hands of a joint venture called Zheyuan, itself the union of Oriental Securities and Shunrong Sanqi via the subsidiary Ledo Millenium. It’s a string of investments and purchases, but the end result is the same: the plan is to tap SNK’s characters and properties to follow the example of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s hard to know for sure what that means for now, but the possibilities and promises are there for games, TV shows, and even movies.
Given that The King of Fighters alone has had more than a hundred characters over the years, it’s not as if anyone is spoiled for choice — and fans of the franchise likely wouldn’t complain about another franchise entry. The sticking point is the quality of those new entries, especially considering how the last movie entry went. Still, SNK Playmore hasn’t exactly done much with their properties over the past few years, so time will tell how the deal with this Chinese company pans out.
Original Author: Voltech44