Today we're going to talk about NetEase.
As Tencent's most powerful competitor, NetEase's investment in the gaming field is also astonishing.
Privately, NetEase, like Tencent, continues to invest in and acquire promising emerging studios in the hope that they will bring greater returns to itself in the future.
In the past three years alone, NetEase's investment in the game field has exceeded 35 billion, and if you move back in time, the cumulative number is not inferior to Tencent.
At the beginning of 2024, we might as well review what NetEase has sprinkled its money on in the past year.
Fantastic Pixel Castle
Fantastic Pixel Castle is a new studio established by NetEase in collaboration with Ghost Crab. Ghost Crab is a much better name than most of the aforementioned, having worked at Blizzard as the lead system designer for World of Warcraft, where he was responsible for expansion packs including Mystery of the Pandaman. After leaving to join Riot, he became the lead game designer for League of Legends, and later oversaw the development of MMO games for the League of Legends IP.
In the official announcement of the establishment of the studio, Ghost Crab said that he will develop a 3AMMO game codenamed "Ghost", and improve development efficiency as much as possible through remote work and community communication. I wonder if this game, which makes ghost crabs have high hopes and even hesitates to leave their comfort zone, will be able to make players' eyes shine at that time?
SkyBox Labs
SkyBox Labs is a game studio founded in 2011 that was acquired by NetEase in January 2023 and operates independently within NetEase Games.
The studio doesn't have many indie games, but they have worked with Xbox Game Studios, Wizards of Coast, and EA on the Halo and Age of Empires franchises, as well as games such as Minecraft and Fallout 76, so they are also well-known overseas.
At present, NetEase does not seem to have made a special plan for SkyBox Labs, and the studio still maintains the existing cooperative relationship, and it cannot be ruled out that NetEase wants to further deepen its ties with overseas game manufacturers through this acquisition.
Spliced
Spliced is a new studio for triple-A game development established by NetEase in February 2023. The studio adopts a hybrid work format of remote and in-office, and the team members are mainly from well-known game companies such as R-Star and Activision, and some have experience working in tech giants such as Google and Amazon.
Interestingly, NetEase's official Twitter account also held a warm-up event for the debut of the Spliced studio at the time. They pinned a rather cyber-style animation and hid a string of ASCII text in it, which translates to telling players that they are going to announce a big event the next day (February 3), which is enough to show that NetEase is really interested in the studio.
Studio Flare
Studio Flare is a new studio invested by NetEase, which has not announced any plans to develop independent games so far, but has confirmed that it will jointly develop games with NetEase in the future.
Like other studios, Studio Flare is also home to some of the biggest names in the industry. For example, the head of the studio, Mori Limichi, was one of the developers of the popular Japanese fighting game series "Guilty Gear X", and was also the producer, screenwriter and director of another popular 2D fighting game series "Apocalypse", and was invited by NetEase last September and chose to leave the existing studio; CEO Aoki Li also worked in Sega, Marvelous and other large companies, and has rich experience in game management.
At present, Studio Flare has not disclosed the general status of the first work, but judging from its extensive recruitment of talents for positions such as 2D/3D artists and infrastructure development engineers, it is likely that the new work will continue the "three-shaded two" style fighting route that Mori Lee Dao is good at.
AnchorPoint
AnchorPoint is a new overseas game studio established by NetEase in April. The studio's owner, Paul Ehreth, has extensive experience in game development as lead designer for the action-adventure game Control, as well as as as a campaign designer for Halo 4 and Halo 5, as well as game developers who have worked on blockbuster titles such as Ghost of Tsushima and Red Dead Redemption 2.
The studio currently plans to focus on developing action-adventure games for PC and consoles, but there are no clear plans for a project, and it is estimated that it will be a long time before they see their new work.
CharacterBank
CharacterBank, a Japan-based AR/VR game studio, raised a total of 17.99 million yuan in new funding in April this year, including NetEase. The studio has released a total of three VR games, the most popular of which is the magic-themed JRPG RUINSMAGUS, which was selected as the best VR game of 2022 on the Quest platform with more than 50,000 copies sold. You must know that NetEase has only invested in a few game studios throughout 2023, and CharacterBank can occupy one of them, which is enough to see NetEase's expectations for the VR field.
Bad Brain Game Studios
Bad Brain Game Studios is an overseas studio established in 2023 by NetEase Youshuang, whose founder, Sean Crooks, has participated in the production of the Watch Dogs series and the open-world action-adventure game Hurricane: San Francisco, and has also participated in the development of classic game series such as Splinter Cell and Far Cry.
Since its inception, the studio has announced plans to develop an open-world action-adventure game based on Unreal Engine 5 and set in the hit 1980s movie, and their latest job postings are also looking for positions such as game designers and programmers, indicating that the project is likely to be well underway, and we look forward to more news in the coming years.
Pincool
Pincool is a studio founded by NetEase in the same month as the above, and it is also its fifth studio in Japan. Ryutaro Ichimura, the main person in charge of the studio, has more than 20 years of experience working for Japanese game publisher SE and has served as an assistant producer for the 7th generation of the Dragon Quest series, and a producer for the 8th and 9th generations of the Dragon Quest series.
The studio is still in the recruitment phase, with three main projects in the pipeline, a small-scale casual one, a medium-sized one that pursues a new mode of entertainment, and a large-scale project that is considered to be completed in three and a half to four and a half years, with an unknown subject matter. In addition, they seem to have the idea of building a new IP from multiple angles, and I can only hope that their vision can be realized as scheduled.
T-Minus Zero Entertainment
T-Minus Zero Entertainment is a new studio established by NetEase in August '23, and the head of the studio, Rich Vogel, has more than three decades of experience working with major companies such as Sony, Bioware and Bethesda, and has been involved in the development of parts of the Star Wars series. Other members of the studio also have experience developing well-known titles such as Fallout 76 and The Elder Scrolls Online.
While the studio hasn't made any specific plans for development, and according to Vogel, they don't plan to expand the team until they find the "soul of the game." However, judging from the deep MMO qualifications of the leaders and many members, it cannot be ruled out that the "soul of the game" they are looking for is precisely hoping to make a breakthrough in the MMO field.