As always, there is no question for NetEase Games of participating in the creation of a studio without being able to entrust its management to a veteran of the sector. With 10 years at Ensemble Studios (Age of Empires), 6 years at Blizzard (World of Warcraft) and 9 years at Riot Games (League of Legends), Greg Street has the profile to not only take over the management of Fantastic Pixel Castle but also its first game, an MMORPG from fantasy currently responding to the code name Ghost. Since December 2020, Greg Street was already in charge of the MMO League of Legends project in preparation at Riot Games until his departure last March.
Designed for teleworking, Fantastic Pixel Studio is therefore announcing itself as early as possible to be able to assemble the team for its future MMO but also to quickly begin dialogue with the community, who will know more about the studio and the game thanks to a broadcast on November 8 at 7 p.m. on Twitch, although you shouldn’t expect to see gameplay at such an early stage of development. Greg Street also regrets that the announcement of his studio is made during such a delicate period for an industry which can no longer go a week without being hit by layoff plans.
When fantasy rhymes with survival
The studio’s official website tells us that Ghost will be a brand new fantasy license that seeks to avoid certain clichés (there will be no elves or orcs, for example). The idea is to separate game sessions into Blue Shards (private games to play with friends) on one side and Red Shards (the traditional MMO experience open to everyone) on the other. The Blue Shards will be survival oriented with resource harvesting, base building and exploration of the wild world. The competitive dimension (guild rivalry, PvP) will be reserved for those who want it. Massively multiplayer, Red Shards will require strong team spirit to survive against bosses and raids. Traveling between the Blue Shards and the Red Shards (as well as the game’s central city) will be part of the experience. Let us add that the PC is logically the main platform for the game, but the team also has consoles in its sights. The economic model is still being studied, but we are promised not to fall into gacha mechanics, loot boxes or pay-to-win.
As a reminder, NetEase Games has already founded or acquired several studios in Japan (Grasshopper Manufacture, Sakura Studio, Nagoshi Studio, GPTRACK50, PinCool) in America (NetEase Games Montréal, Jackalyptic Games, Jar of Sparks, Anchor Point, Bad Brain Game Studios, SkyBox Labs, T-Minus Zero Entertainment) and in Europe (Spliced, Quantic Dream) all in the space of two years.