Seiken Densetsu launched yesterday (August 29), but according to a new report, plans to cut back and ultimately shut down JRPG developer Ouka Studios have been brewing for some time, with NetEase already cutting “all but a handful of jobs” All jobs other than
The news comes from Bloomberg, which has been studying NetEase and Tencent, two major Chinese companies that have been scaling back their investments in Japan.
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Ouka opened in 2020 and continues to hire veteran developers from companies like Capcom and Bandai Namco. “Visions of Mana” published by Square Enix was announced at last year’s Game Awards and locked in a summer version through the Xbox Developer Face-to-face game launch in January this year.
With most of Ouka’s staff being laid off, those who remain are overseeing the release of the remaining games before the studio’s closure, the report said. Its author, Takashi Mochizuki, added on Twitter, “NetEase has been laying off employees at Ouka for some time, at least since this spring.”
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So assuming that’s what’s going to happen, the decision to close the studio doesn’t seem to be a reaction to the release, and to be fair, NetEase seems to have had little time to analyze how the game will actually be finished, and if that’s the case, it won’t achieve any goals. Word.
When asked about Ouka’s potential closure, NetEase told Bloomberg that the company had “nothing to announce” and a company spokesperson said: “When supporting studios outside of China, our goal is to serve players both locally and around the world. To provide a better gaming experience and thereby formulate our strategy, adding that NetEase is “always making necessary adjustments to reflect market conditions.”
Tencent, another company discussed in the report, said it remains committed to its business in Japan. Back in 2023, it struck a deal to create a mobile version of Bandai Namco MMORPG Blue Protocol, and this week it was announced that the version would be shutting down in January 2025 and that Amazon Games would not continue to distribute it globally.
