NetEase Games would be in the process of acquiring the studio Quantic Dreamto whom we owe the games Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human. It is once once more to journalist Tom Henderson that we owe this latest rumor. The American insider is not at his first breaking news revealed in advance, regularly leaking game releases expected well in advance of their official announcements.
Quantic Dream soon under the fold of NetEase Games?
This is for the site Exputer that Henderson reveals this bomb, which would mark a turning point in the history of Quantic Dream. The Chinese group NetEase, an increasingly important player in the video game market, is preparing to buy the French studio. A formalization of this takeover is expected for next summer, without further information. NetEase had acquired a minority stake in the shares of Quantic Dream in 2019. At the time of writing, neither of the two groups concerned by this information has commented on the subject.
Still according to the journalist’s sources, Quantic Dream has sought to be acquired by various publishers and other major players in the sector since the end of its agreement with Sony in 2018. This agreement, providing for three games exclusive to PlayStation platforms, gave birth to the trilogy Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human. Moreover, we learn that Star Wars Eclipse, the latest project announced by the studio, was reportedly first pitched as a standalone space exploration game in the LucasFilms franchise, under the name “Project Karma.” Announced in December 2021, Star Wars Eclipse currently has no release horizon.
NetEase Games is not its first video game studio takeover, but Quantic Dream would represent its first studio established in the West. After opening Sakura Studio in 2020 in Japan, the Chinese group has continued this momentum within the industry of the archipelago. First by buying the studio Grasshoper Manufacture (No More Heroes) to the GungHo group, then by recruiting Toshihiro Nagoshi, an illustrious figure in the history of SEGA. The creator of the franchise Yakuza recently unveiled its new team, Nagoshi Studio, led by NeatEase last January.