Ouka Studios is reportedly going to be shut down - just a day after releasing ‘Visions of Mana’.
Ouka Studios is reportedly going to be shut down - just a day after releasing Visions of Mana
According to a recent Bloomberg report, the corporation’s parent company NetEase Games is planning to close the Japanese studio - which developed and released the RPG yesterday (29.08.24) - due to the Chinese market’s shift away from Japanese-centric projects.
Sources told the publisher that “all but a handful of jobs” have been cut at Ouka, and those that remained will “oversee the rollout of its final games” before the studio shuts down completely.
After the report was released, NetEase told Bloomberg it had “nothing to announce” in relation to the supposed closure.
The firm said: “In supporting studios outside China, we craft our strategy based on our goal of providing better gaming experiences to local and global players.”
The company added it was “always making necessary adjustments to reflect market conditions”.
One source suggested that NetEase - which launched Ouka in 2020 - and its rival Chinese firm Tencent had also been inspired by the success of ‘Black Myth: Wukong’, which was developed by the relatively small Chinese studio Game Science and sold roughly 10 million copies in its first three days.
As well as NetEase, Bloomberg reported Tencent is also reconsidering its investment into Japanese video game studios, and has already backed out of making a mobile version of ‘Blue Protocol’ after developer Bandai Namco announced earlier this week (28.08.24) the title wouldn’t get a global release and would shut down completely in January 2025.