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It is rumored that Chinese publisher Netease will be acquiring French developer Quantic Dream, known for their adventure games like Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human.
This rumor comes from well-known insider Tom Henderson through an article he posted on eXputer. He reported that NetEase Games will buy 100% ownership of Quantic Dream. This buyout has reportedly been in the negotiation process for the past few months.
It is not yet clear whether the two parties have reached an agreement, but the relationship between them has become quite close over the last few years. NetEase actually made a large investment in Quantic Dream in 2019 to support the development of new games from the studio.
The studio’s latest project is the upcoming Star Wars Eclipse which like their previous works, will be a story-oriented adventure game set in the Star Wars universe. it will be very interesting to see if in the future the NetEase name will appear as the official publisher of the game.
Quantic Dream has been entangled in controversies suggesting that it had a bad work environment, with acquisitions of sexual harassment and crunchtime. With this in mind, a company overhaul under a new publisher may not be too large of a stretch.
NetEase Games has been making notable moves to expand its company beyond making mobile games to publishing high-quality more internationally oriented AAA titles.
In addition to inaugurating several new developers such as Sakura Studio and Nagoshi Studio, led by the former Yakuza director, they are also increasingly active in making acquisitions of other well-known developers. The most notable acquisition is Grasshopper Manufacture, the developers of the No More Heroes games.
While we haven’t seen them announce any new games from these studios, it is clear that are planning for a wider range of big-budget titles in the future, and publishing a Star Wars game would certainly increase their publicity in global markets.
It is not currently confirmed when Star Wars Eclipse will be released or what consoles it will be available on.
