As Bloomberg reports, Netease And Tencent, The largest publishers from China decided to revise their investments in Japanese studios. For several years, giants invested money in the local video game market, but they did not achieve the desired result.
So, Netease began to gradually reduce employees Ouka Studios In Tokyo since the spring of 2024. At the moment, the staff of the organization has a small handful of employees. According to Bloomberg sources, the publisher intends to close OUKA. Recall that the studio was opened in 2020 and hired many veterans from eminent studios like Capcom And Bandai Namco. The day before OUKA released the role action of Visions of Mana, which collected not the highest marks – 76 points on Metacritic.
Meanwhile Tencent reduced the https://megacasinoonline.co.uk flow of cash injections into the Game Industry of Japan, abandoning a number of proposals for financing new interactive entertainment.
And what the mentioned companies have forgotten in the Land of the Rising Sun? Due to the stagnation of their native market, Chinese giants began to look for opportunities abroad. In the end Tencent And Netease They turned their gaze to Japan, the third largest market in the gaming industry, and since 2020 they began to actively fill up local developers with money in the hope of getting potential blockbusters.
However, the exhaust that the publishers hoped did not follow. For example, in 2023 Tencent received the rights to production and distribution of the mobile version of MMORPG Blue Protocol from Bandai Namco. The company wanted to develop a project to a full franchise. However, the recent leads put an end to this idea – the Japanese version of the “protocol” will turn off in January 2025 (a year after the launch), and the release in Western countries was canceled.
Bloomberg sources emphasized that Tencent disappointed with its Japanese partners. This was partly due to the inconsistency of the ambitions of the publisher and developers. The Japanese burn with small titles with minimal risk, and Tencent I drew to Japan precisely in search of teams that could make an international hit. Therefore, since last year, the publishing house began to discuss higher planks and expectations when it offers studio money.
Although the Chinese are reviewing their investments, to leave Japan neither Tencent, Neither Netease Not going to, said Bernstein analyst Robin Zhu (Robin Zhu). They will continue to work closely with the largest developers like Capcom And Bandai Namco.
Also Tencent And Netease We again paid attention to the Middle Kingdom market due to the roofing success of Black Myth: Wukong . For the project in the answer, a small Chinese team Game Science, consisting of former employees Tencent. The game was sold by a circulation of more than 10 million copies in a record time. So far this is the best result in 2024. According to one of the sources of Bloomberg, this fact has spurred Chinese corporations to look for hidden pearls in their homeland, and also made foreign investments less attractive.