Tencent has bought a 9 per cent stake in the UK’s only listed video game developer, Frontier Developments, as the Chinese technology group attempts to expand in Europe and the US following a regulatory backlash in China over the addictiveness of video games.

The ￡17.7m investment in Frontier Developments comes as Tencent plans to roll out its blockbuster video game, Honour of Kings, in the US and Western Europe after it was forced to limit the time children spend playing it in China because of criticism from the authorities.

Frontier will use the deal to expand in China, where its games have become increasingly popular following the end of a ban on game consoles in 2015, after fifteen years. Beijing banned video game consoles in 2000, calling them “electronic heroin”.