French developer and publisher Quantic Dream has announced that it has been acquired by Chinese company NetEase.
Announced today, no details regarding how much NetEase paid for the acquisition of the Heavy Rain developer has been disclosed. Back in 2019 NetEase acquired a minority stake in Quantic Dream but is now the sole shareholder and owner of the studio.
The Detroit: Become Human developer says that it will “retain its artistic independence” on its Twitter account while Quantic Dream founder, CEO, and writer-director David Cage released a statement,
“Today marks an important milestone for our studio after a quarter century of complete independence,” said Quantic Dream’s founder, CEO and writer-director David Cage. “NetEase Games values our creative freedom and the drive and passion of our uniquely diverse team. We will now be able to accelerate the vision we share as a group, of creating landmark titles that touch people on an emotional level. We have highly differentiated games in the making and I truly believe that the best is yet to come from Quantic Dream. I am particularly proud that our employees, who were offered a significant share of our capital over the past years, will fully benefit from this acquisition. It is a testimony to our continued commitment to reward all those who have made Quantic Dream the successful studio it is today.”
NetEase Director and CEO William Ding provided a statement on the company’s latest acquisition,
“We are thrilled to embark on an exciting new stage of growth with Quantic Dream, bound by our shared vision, mutual trust and respect. NetEase will continue to fulfil[sic] our promise to support Quantic Dream to realise[sic] its full potential. By combining the wild creativity and exceptional narrative focus of Quantic Dream with NetEase’s powerful facilities, resources and execution capabilities, we believe there are infinite possibilities that could re-define the interactive entertainment experience we provide for players worldwide.”
Quantic Dream is NetEase’s first acquisition of a European-based studio. NetEase assured Quantic Dream fans that the developer “will continue to operate independently, focusing on creating and publishing its video games on all platforms, as well as supporting and publishing third-party developed titles, while at the same time leveraging NetEase’s significant game development capabilities.
However, given NetEase’s involvement with the development of Diablo Immortal and overall criticism of the game’s monetization, speculation runs rampant as to how this will affect future Quantic Dream IPs. Quantic Dream is currently developing a Star Wars game titled Star Wars: Eclipse.
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