Klei Entertainment
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Klei Entertainment Inc. ( ) is a Canadian video game development company located in
Vancouver Vancouver is a major city in Western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the cit ...
,
British Columbia British Columbia is the westernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Situated in the Pacific Northwest between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains, the province has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that ...
. Klei was formed in July 2005 by Jamie Cheng. Their best-known titles include '' Don't Starve'' and '' Oxygen Not Included''. On January 25, 2021, Klei became a
subsidiary A subsidiary, subsidiary company, or daughter company is a company (law), company completely or partially owned or controlled by another company, called the parent company or holding company, which has legal and financial control over the subsidia ...
of the Chinese holding conglomerate
Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( zh, s=腾讯, p=Téngxùn) is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimed ...
.


History

Jamie Cheng founded Klei Entertainment in July 2005. Prior to the formation of Klei, Cheng worked as a specialist AI
programmer A programmer, computer programmer or coder is an author of computer source code someone with skill in computer programming. The professional titles Software development, ''software developer'' and Software engineering, ''software engineer' ...
at
Relic Entertainment Relic Entertainment Inc. (formerly known as THQ Canada Inc.) is a Canadian video game developer based in Vancouver, founded in 1997. The studio specializes in real-time strategy games and is known for series such as '' Homeworld'', '' Warhammer 4 ...
, formerly owned by THQ. Cheng acquired seed funding for Klei by selling his THQ shares earned at Relic and getting a $10,000 loan from his brother. With the initial funding secured, Cheng partnered with Jeffrey Agala to become co-founder and Creative Director at the studio. In 2009, Klei had 11 employees and as of May 2013, it had grown to 35 employees. Their first title, '' Eets,'' was first released on March 27, 2006, for
Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
, then for
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on December 9, 2010. Between those two releases, the game was ported to the Xbox 360 via the
Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (or XBLA) was a video game Digital distribution in video games, digital distribution service that was available for the Xbox (console), Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. It focused on smaller downloadable games from both major publisher ...
platform and released on April 25, 2007. Retitled to ''Eets: Chowdown'', this version featured 120 new levels and an action minigame called ''Marsho Madness''. The company assisted with Slick Entertainment's '' N+'', the Xbox Live Arcade port of the
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game '' N''. In 2008, Klei developed '' Sugar Rush'', a casual
massively multiplayer online game A massively multiplayer online game (MMOG or more commonly MMO) is an online video game with a large number of players to interact in the same online game world. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent world, persistent open world, although t ...
. They announced in late August 2010, that development had stopped and the game had been canceled. The company's fourth original title, ''Shank'', was announced at
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2009. It was released on August 24, 2010, for the
PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...
, August 25, 2010, for the
Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...
, and October 26, 2010, for Microsoft Windows. Klei's survival adventure game '' Don't Starve'' was released on April 23, 2013. ''Don't Starve'' was released in a 2-for-1 beta format on
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, allowing players to purchase two copies of the game for the price of one. Before it was officially self-published, Klei sold more than 300,000 copies of ''Don't Starve'' at a price of $15 each. On April 21, 2016, Klei released a stand-alone multiplayer version of ''Don't Starve'' called ''Don't Starve Together'', which has regular updates and individual downloadable content. On July 2, 2013, it was announced that their next release would be titled '' Invisible, Inc.'', a turn-based espionage game released on May 12, 2015. In 2017, Klei Entertainment acquired Slick Entertainment. Slick founder Nick Waanders and CEO Jamie Cheng previously worked together at Relic Entertainment, which established a working relationship that later allowed the companies to merge. Klei announced in January 2021 that they had agreed to allow
Tencent Tencent Holdings Ltd. ( zh, s=腾讯, p=Téngxùn) is a Chinese Multinational corporation, multinational technology Conglomerate (company), conglomerate and holding company headquartered in Shenzhen. It is one of the highest grossing multimed ...
to acquire a majority stake in the company. Klei would remain in full control of its products, but the Tencent acquisition would help them reach the gaming market in China.


Culture

Co-founder Jamie Cheng sought a company culture where employees live balanced lives. He built Klei on the theory that game studios could make popular, interesting games with a reasonable budget during normal hours at a fair price and still be successful.


Games


Games Developed


Games Published


References


External links

* Interview with Jamie Cheng
GamaSutra--> {{Tencent 2005 establishments in British Columbia 2021 mergers and acquisitions Canadian companies established in 2005 Canadian subsidiaries of foreign companies Companies based in Vancouver Tencent Games Video game companies established in 2005 Video game companies of Canada Video game development companies