Tencent is now making first-party AAA games for PlayStation 5, Xbox SX

Tencent is mostly known for its billion-dollar monetization and buying out devs, but now it wants to make a big splash in the AAA games market.

Tencent today announced Lightspeed Studio, a new development team that'll make big-budget AAA games for next-gen PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles. Lightspeed Studio is headquartered in the U.S. game dev mecca of Los Angeles and is helmed by ex-Rockstar Games San Diego director Steve Martin. Lightspeed has also courted seasoned devs from studios like Respawn, Insomniac, and 2K Games.

Reports say Lightspeed's first game will be a sizable open-world AAA title that's optimized specifically for next-gen hardware, so expect larger-than-life content. Tencent surely has deep enough pockets to make their debut first-party AAA game a dazzling and unforgettable experience. The company made over $16 billion last year from games alone, but most of that is from heavily monetized free-to-play games.

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It's possible Lightspeed's new game is the cyberpunk project that Tencent recently teased at its big gaming event. The project is called SYN, and it looks to be a huge avenue for direct-style monetization and engagement (which are hallmarks of Tencent's entire gaming modus operandi).

"Tencent Games also released SYN, a tech demo of open world first person shooting (FPS) game marketed for PC and console games. The demo is developed by Tencent Games' Lightspeed and Quantum Studios, leveraging Epic Games' strand based hair system to push forward state of the art real-time graphics in a cyberpunk style world with an intriguing universe and striking visuals," reads a press release sent out by Tencent.