A quarter of a century after its creation and only a few years after the end of its long partnership with Sony Interactive Entertainment, the studio of Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human secures its future by agreeing to join the fold of NetEase Games , an operation that will not prevent him, he assures us, from retaining all his creative freedom. This acquisition does not change anything to the editorial ambitions of Quantic Dream either, which therefore still intends to publish its own games but also those of other studios, such as Dustborn (Red Thread Games) and Under the Waves (Parallel Studio). As a reminder, NetEase Games had already supported Quantic Dream by becoming a minority shareholder in January 2019, at the end of a 10-year partnership with PlayStation.
Quantic Dream becomes the first NetEase Games studio based in Europe, after investments led in Japan (Sakura Studio, Grasshopper Manufacture, Nagoshi Studio) and two AAA studios founded in the United States (Jackalope Games, Jar of Sparks). Like its rival Tencent Games, NetEase Games is in a phase of global expansion and intends to make a name for itself outside of Asia on all platforms. Valued at more than 60 billion dollars, NetEase Games achieved in 2021 a turnover of 8.8 billion euros with games like Fantasy Westward Journey, Westward Journey Online, Naraka: Bladepoint and Harry Potter: Magic Emerges .
“To continue our development and our presence in the world, but also to finance other studios and to become an international publisher, greater investments are necessary, to continue to build our technology and our infrastructure, to offer new generation games always more impressive, to expand our team and develop several projects simultaneously.
We met NetEase about 4 years ago and offered them to join us as a minority shareholder in January 2019. During this time we learned a lot about each other. We started working together on small and large projects, we collaborated with pleasure and discussed a lot about our sector and our vision for the future. This is how we discovered that we shared the same desire: to create audacious and highly qualitative works that leave an impression.
To continue to evolve and dream big, as we embark on “our next 25 years”, we are very pleased to announce that we will join NetEase Games, which becomes a 100% shareholder of Quantic Dream. We maintain our independence on our editorial line, the artistic direction of projects and the management of the studio. Our teams, who are fully involved in this operation and who benefit directly financially from it, are of course fully preserved and will continue to grow and strengthen.
NetEase Games aims to support the innovation and development of video games around the world; it is within this framework that Quantic Dream will continue its growth. We will still operate independently, we will maintain the ability to create and self-publish our video games on all platforms, continue to support and publish titles developed by third parties“, can we read on the press release of Quantic Dream.
According to co-CEO Guillaume de Fondaumière, the allegations Quantic Dream received regarding its toxic culture as well as its conflicts with the press and some of its collaborators had “no impact” on the discussions with NetEase Games, reports the Games Industry site. The studio also remains on its biggest critical and commercial success with Detroit: Beyond Human (7 million sales on PS4 and PC since May 2018). The 250-plus-person studio is currently working on three projects, but the only one to have been officially unveiled is Star Wars Eclipse, a title that’s said to be a long way from release, however.
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