Chinese tech giants Tencent and NetEase are curbing investments in Japanese gaming studios including the closure of Ouka Studio, developers of Visions of Mana, due to a lack of substantial successes. Bloomberg reports that NetEase has already begun the process of releasing the Ouka Studio developers, retaining only a few individuals to handle the release of its last games before the studio’s official closure. In addition to this, Tencent has obtained the rights to release the mobile edition of Bandai Namco’s Blue Protocol, however, Bandai Namco announced that it will be stopping the game’s support in 2025, and cancelling its global release via Amazon Games.
There appears to be a disagreement in goals between Tencent and the local gaming studios in Japan. The local developers are more inclined towards the creation of smaller-scale and lower risk projects, while Tencent seeks global franchises. This difference in perspective has led Tencent to set higher funding expectations for the developers they fund.
NetEase’s previous investments in Japanese studios include Nagoshi Studio, led by Toshihiro Nagoshi, the creator of Yakuza, and the acquisition of Grasshopper Manufacture, popular for its game, No More Heroes. Meanwhile, Tencent holds a minority stake up to 5% in GameScience, which recently launched the highly successful game, Black Myth: Wukong.
Leave a Reply