NetEase Japan Sakura Studio exposed 3 new games in research and development, all of which are console masterpieces!

As netease's first studio to "focus on console game research and development" set up in an important Japanese market, Sakura Studio, which was founded in June 2020, has been attracting attention from the outside world. Nearly 2 years after the official announcement, in an interview recently, Sakura Studio finally revealed the game projects being developed, and it was 3 at one time.

Interestingly, the products exposed this time are all action games, and the scale of the project is not small, 2 of which are called "large", and the other 1 is a new work in the popular series.

Why are studio projects all medium to large jumps? Tetsuya Akatsuka, director of Sakura Studio, also believes that sakura studio is a multinational team, and NetEase has gathered talents and resources from all over the world to naturally promote more ambitious projects. "This is something that the average Japanese company cannot easily push forward."

The first one: UE production, let people "peaceful" open world

The first project was a large-scale project with the largest number of interviewees, with a total of 4 members interviewed, including "Mr. O", "Mr. S", "Mr. T" and "Mr. K".

"Mr. O" introduced that the positioning of the first product is a single-player action RPG, which will show the growth of the characters through the "advancement of the game scene", with the goal of creating a comfortable action game feel.

"Mr. S" further introduced the state of game development. He says the game map is large and seamless (semi-real hammer open world) and was developed using Unreal Engine. He also emphasized that the game has a diversity of AI, and that the games he is involved in are not the only projects, and the team is also developing a future-oriented highly scalable event control system and text management system.

This also shows that NetEase's goal of entering the console game is not just to create a few games so simple, but also to build an industrial pipeline to achieve stable output of high-quality AAA console game production capacity in the future.

At the same time, according to "Mr. S", the world of the game is a warm world that will make people feel peaceful.

Such a description is confusing, but it seems less difficult to understand if you think of "Light Encounter", which is also "warm" in the worldview.

At the specific content level of other games, the members did not reveal more. The last two members of "Mr. T" and "Mr. K" mainly talked about interesting stories about the exchange of teams between China and Japan, and indirectly revealed that Sakura Studio has adopted the practice of collaborative development between China and Japan.

"Mr. T" pointed out that although there is no translation, it is difficult to talk about the details, but the company's own chat tool also has a translation function, simple communication is not a problem, while speaking Chinese, while speaking Japanese can also achieve communication. "Mr. K" said that sometimes the translation will be artificially retarded, such as translating "organ" into "organ", so that colleagues in China can make a big deal at the same time" " .

The second: well-known IP new works, easy to experience the battle game

The second product is a "new action game from the hot series". "Mr. E" said that the game is a new series of battle games, and fans are enthusiastic.

Probably because of the IP involved, the project revealed the least information to the outside world.

However, another member, "Mr. I", revealed that the team is designing a mature and interesting game system that anyone can easily experience, and the focus of the game is on the characters and actions, but more information is limited to this.

More members of the project are recruiting staff than introductory games. They said that developing games with Chinese colleagues was a challenge, but it was a new and fun experience that could only be experienced at Sakura Studios, and called for players who "want to move freely while valuing collaboration" to join.

Tetsuya Akatsuka, the studio director who has been working in game development at Namco for many years, also welcomed talents from various types of work, including planning, programming, and art. He said that whether you have a lot of experience in game development, but want to challenge new technologies and works, or just enter the industry, but want to have more freedom, express your ideas in your work and works, welcome to Sakura Studio.

The third: a team game that challenges both entertainment and player cooperation

The third project is "Mega", more precisely "Super Large New Action Game". According to the R&D members code-named "Mr. J," the product is an "original IP co-op action game" where players will battle a "ferocious and huge enemy." With its cool and cool action, the game is a cooperative game that brings a pleasant experience.

Asked about the game's specifics, Mr. J said he couldn't say much, but noted that the team was working on a completely new game system to achieve the goal of "unprecedented cooperative games."

Keywords such as cooperation and ferocious enemies are easily reminiscent of Capcom's classic Monster Hunter series.

However, the members interviewed pointed out that the team is developing a game system specifically for the game and trying to "create a new combat experience" through enemy AI.

He further explained that the team's goal is not only to develop a powerful AI, but also to identify the destination, reach the destination (which sounds like an automatic pathfinding system), cooperation between NPCs, and enemies that challenge and entertain players, so that everyone can easily get started.

Through simple text description, it seems difficult to determine the appearance of new products, but NetEase seems to be trying to introduce the advantages of mobile games with low threshold and easy to use into console games. In fact, as early as 2017, NetEase did launch the 3D co-combat mobile game "Soul Hunting Awakening", accumulating experience in the development of cooperative hunting games, and pathfinding is also common in mobile games, including the rich interaction between NPCs.

"Mr. J" also revealed that the core team of the project in Guangzhou, China, where NetEase headquarters is located, is a mixed team of "young and enthusiastic Chinese employees" and "experienced Japanese employees". At the time of the official announcement of Sakura Studio, it was actually explained that it was based in Guangzhou, China, and Tokyo, Japan.

In other words, NetEase's way of entering the host market is not to fully reproduce the external experience, but to try the Chinese and Japanese experience, and to recruit senior producers to combine with past advantages to find their own way.

The art drawings released by Sakura Studio in this interview:

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