The Chinese internet giant, NetEase, has made an offer to buy the studio Quantic Dream, developers of hit video games Detroit: Become Human or the next one Star Wars.
It is a French video game nugget that will fall into the hands of a Chinese technology giant. The Quantic Dream studio has announced that it has received a takeover offer from Internet specialist NetEase. The French developer and publisher did not disclose the amount of the transaction.
Quantic Dream is one of the showcases of French excellence in the field of video games and David Cage’s studio, with an estimated turnover of 10 million euros, has earned a solid reputation for 25 years, especially in narrative writing and graphic realism close to a film.
We owe him, for example, the highly acclaimed games Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls or Detroit: Become Human. Always very prolific, during Gamescom, Quantic Dream unveiled its very first published game, Under The Wavesand its teams are preparing, among other things, the next game Star Wars.
A studio with a worldwide reputation
It is therefore not a surprise to have seen the behemoth NetEase, which weighs some 60 billion dollars, take a close interest in the little French pearl. Less known than Tencent, the world leader in video games, the Chinese have made a name for themselves as an internet portal, but also an online game publisher. And like its neighbor Tencent, the Asian giant has the European market in its sights.
If Tencent is targeting Ubisoft as a takeover – of which it already owns 5% -, NetEase is less greedy, but is playing a nice card to position itself and make a name for itself in the video game world which continues to buzz with the sound of takeovers.
Billion-dollar takeovers
Admittedly, the two Chinese players are still far from the inclinations of Microsoft, which took out the checkbook to bring into its lap tenors like Bethesda (Dishonored, Deathloop, Doom) and maybe soon Activision Blizzard King (Call of Duty, League of Legends, World of Warcraft, Candy Crush), if the American and international competition authorities validate the takeover for 70 billion dollars. The now Xbox Studios, which develop games for Xbox consoles, have nearly 30 family members. Enough to announce games galore for the Xbox Series S and Series X.
For its part, the competitor Sony is not left out, even if it started less on the floor. PlayStation also multiplies the deals to expand its PlayStation Studios family, which has achieved a great success by signing Bungie (Halo -flagship game of the Xbox yet-, Destiny), but also smaller studios, but which complement its offer to bring its emblematic games to PC or smartphone. One seeks to densify its catalog, the other to multiply its supports: two signs of the same desire for concentration, the new favorite activity of the main protagonists of a sector in full economic expansion.