For several years, Supercell's runaway hit Clash of Clans has been one of the dominant forces in the mobile games market, with the studio having now been acquired with a large sum from China's Tencent Holding Limited for greater control in the company's operations, which also has a controlling stake in League of Legends developer Riot Games.

In a new report from The Wall Street Journal, Tencent has officially acquired Supercell in a deal for $8.6 billion, leaving the company's total stake in Supercell at 84.3% of its shares, and a valuation of $10.2 billion for Supercell and its games/assets.

Reports of the deal have been long-rumored, though Tencent made the transaction official as the company will be buying the stakes in Supercell from its previous owner, the Japanese corporation SoftBank (which previously owned 51% stake in the company in a $1.5 billion deal).

The deal with Tencent will be finalized in the third quarter of 2016 with payments to occur in stages, with Tencent explaining that Supercell will "main operational independence" during and following the transaction. Supercell CEO Ikka Paananen explained in a statement regarding the partnership with Tencent:

"For us, today is all about chasing a future for Supercell that we have always dreamed of. We founded this company to make great games that people all over the world would play for decades. We have been very lucky as over the past six years we've released four top games that are now played by over 100 million people every single day."

"But more than this, we dream of our current and future games becoming a part of the rich history of games, living onto the very long term. And if you take this very long-term view, you quickly realize that we are still at the beginning of what will hopefully be a very long journey."

Supercell is based in Helsinki, Finland, and is most well-known for its massively popular Clash of Clans, along with other mobile games such as Boom Beach and Clash Royale.