NetEase
Ouka Studios, the developers behind Visions of Mana, are at risk of being closed down by NetEase
A day after the release of the wonderful Visions of Mana, the studio behind the game is facing the risk of closure by investor NetEase, with most of its staff already having been laid off.
Visions of Mana is the latest release from Square Enix, developed by Ouka Studios. But what should have been good news to finally see the fruit of their great work, has ended up being newsworthy because of the possible closure of the studio due to a general reduction in investment in Japanese studios by Chinese companies such as NetEase and Tencent.
This information comes from a report from Bloomberg in which it is stated that both NetEase and Tencent are rethinking their market strategy because they have not produced significant results. The report notes that NetEase has “cut all but a handful of jobs at its Ouka Studio in Tokyo,” a Japanese company founded by the Chinese giant in 2020 and based in Shibuya.
NetEase, Tencent, and investment in Japan
NetEase and Tencent are two technology giants that encompass a multitude of companies, and although neither has commented on their investment in Japan, the Bloomberg report highlights that the two companies are beginning to rethink their strategy in the Asian country. High-level investments, prominent studios, and enormously important personalities were committed to creating a catalog of big-budget AAA games.
What other studios does NetEase have in Japan? Names like Suda51 and Grasshoper Manufacture; Nagoshi Studio’s Toshihiro Nagoshi, creator of Yakuza and a figure of enormous relevance in the history of Sega; Pincool and Ryutaro Ichimura, producer of Dragon Quest 8 and 9; Studio Flare with Toshimichi Mori, BlazBlue producer, and GPTRACK50 with Hiroyuki Kobayashi, producer of Resident Evil 4.
Names of enormous importance that in some cases may not be meeting the expectations that NetEase had for them. The success of Black Myth: Wukong does not work in favor of many studios, even more so when your investor is from the same country as one of the biggest hits of the year. The influence of NetEase and Tencent goes beyond Asia, with investments and studios in the United States and Europe.
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