NetEase Games Acquires Quantic Dream

NetEase Games has announced it has acquired Quantic Dream, the French developers behind narrative adventure games including Detroit: Become Human, Beyond: Two Souls, and Heavy Rain.

Quantic Dream will be the first NetEase Games studio to be based in Europe.

Similar to previous acquisitions, Quantic Dream will remain operating independently “focusing on creating and publishing its video games on all platforms, as well as supporting and publishing third-party developed titles” but will make use of additional resources and game development capabilities that NetEase has.

“We are thrilled to embark on an exciting new stage of growth with Quantic Dream, bound by our shared vision, mutual trust and respect,” said William Ding, CEO and Director of NetEase, Inc.

“NetEase will continue to fulfil our promise to support Quantic Dream to realise 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.”

“NetEase Games values our creative freedom and the drive and passion of our uniquely diverse team,” said Quantic Dream’s founder, CEO and writer-director David Cage.

“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.”

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NetEase first invested in Quantic Dream three years ago.

Employees of Quantic Dream owned a share of the capital of the company, Cage explained in the press release. Which means they too will benefit directly from the acquisition. The price of the acquisition was not disclosed.

Quantic Dream is currently working on three games including Star Wars Eclipse and the recently revealed Under the Waves.

NetEase Games, based in China, continues to make significant acquisitions, as well as establishing new studios from various game development veterans across the world. Recent new studios formed or acquired under NetEase include Jar Of Sparks (founded by Jerry Hook, head of design for Halo Infinite), Jackalope Games (Jack Emmert, City Of Heroes), Nagoshi Studio (Toshihiro Nagoshi) and Grasshopper Manufacture (Suda51, No More Heroes).