NetEase Games has been expanding quite a bit over the past year, announcing a partnership with both Destiny developer Bungie for an upcoming game. Today, the Chinese company is continuing its efforts to find developers that “complement us in the development and creation of the next generation games” by acquiring a minority stake in Quantic Dream, a French developer known for titles like Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and most recently Detroit: Become Human.
While Quantic Dream and its games are heavily associated with Sony Interactive Entertainment and its consoles, they still operate independently and are not completely tied to the aforementioned company. This means that there is some room for a partnership with a company like NetEase, though this is uncharted territory for the studio. According to this announcement, this partnership will allow both Quantic Dream and NetEase to “develop advanced technologies and games for the future.”
As I briefly mentioned before, NetEase Vice President Ethan Wang mentioned that Quantic Dream is part of an initiative by the Chinese company to find developers that will assist in the creating of next-generation games. Ethan says that “Quantic Dream’s excellence in interactive storytelling and the valuable expertise it has built over the past two decades is exactly what we have been looking for,” and can’t wait to create games alongside them.
On Quantic Dream’s end, Detroit: Become Human recently passed 2 million copies sold and the developer recently teased that “some great news” was coming soon. This NetEase partnership could possibly be what they were referring to. Both co-CEOs David Cage and Guillaume de Fondaumiere seemed happy with this minority stake purchase by NetEase as well.
Cage, who also serves as the studios Creative Director, sees that that game industry will be changing in the coming years “with new hardware to come, new business models to explore and new ways of playing to invent.” In order to ensure that Quantic Dream will “take a key role” in this partnerships with companies like NetEase are crucial. “NetEase understands what Quantic is about as they share our passion for high quality games and our ambitions for the studio,” commented David Cage.
As for Guillaume de Fondaumiere, he says that from a business perspective that NetEase’s “commitment to quality and innovation and their impressive track-record” when creating several popular games was enticing to Quantic Dream. Overall, Guillaume thinks that “partnering with NetEase will open new opportunities for our studio and strengthen our position as pioneers and innovators.”
While no projects associated with this partnership have been announced yet, DualShockers will be sure to let you know once the pair does unveil a new game that will likely be for next-gen platforms. In the meantime, you can enjoy Quantic Dream’s PS4 exclusive Detroit: Become Human, which is currently available on Amazon.
The post NetEase Games Gears Up for Next-Gen Development by Acquiring Minority Stake in Quantic Dream by Tomas Franzese appeared first on DualShockers.