Story of Seasons mobile game dead as Marvelous ends six-year Tencent partnership

Marvelous has officially ended its partnership with Tencent subsidiary Image Frame Investment, and the Story of Seasons mobile game that's been in development since 2019 is cancelled as a result.

Image Frame — a Hong Kong-based Tencent subsidiary — bought a 20 percent stake in Marvelous back in May 2020 for around $65 million, making it the company's largest shareholder. The mobile Story of Seasons project had been running under a licensing deal signed in March 2019, but Tencent has now pulled the plug, citing "business environment and profitability" as the reason. Marvelous' board voted on 31st July to terminate the alliance. Importantly, the original 2019 licence agreement remains intact, so Marvelous could theoretically pursue a different mobile partner for Story of Seasons in the future. The upcoming Story of Seasons console game is not affected.

This move fits a broader pattern: Tencent is currently negotiating exits from several Japanese game studios as part of a global portfolio reassessment during an industry-wide economic slump. The news comes just weeks after reports surfaced that Tencent was reconsidering its stakes in multiple Japanese developers, Marvelous among them. Tencent has been reshaping its investments elsewhere too — last year it partnered with Ubisoft to create Vantage Studios, a subsidiary holding many of Ubisoft's major franchises, which reflects where Tencent now sees growth potential.

For Story of Seasons fans, the console pipeline looks unaffected, and the door to a mobile entry isn't permanently closed — just this particular version of it. Whether Marvelous pursues another mobile deal remains to be seen.