According to close sources, NetEase has laid off almost the entire staff of Ouka Studio at its headquarters in Shibuya, Tokyo. The news has come to light via Bloomberg just a day after the release of Visions of Mana, the first original instalment in the series in 15 years. They also report that the remaining staff will stay on until the games’ development and final polish is complete, and then close the studio for good.
Tencent, the other Chinese giant in the video game industry, is also reportedly cutting back substantially on its investment in video games in the Japanese country, as it seeks to bolster the growing global expansion of Chinese developments. The cancellation and abandonment of Blue Protocol, announced this week, is apparently related to this decision.
While such moves are never sudden, there is little doubt that the recent success of Black Myth: Wukong may have accelerated and supported the Chinese gaming powers’ decision to focus on their domestic industry from the inside.
What do you think, will the Japanese games industry suffer after the exit of Chinese funding, and will we see many more Chinese games coming to the West in the future?