Visions of Mana studio set to close as NetEase and Tencent reportedly scale back Japan investments

Ouka Studios, the developer behind Visions of Mana, is reportedly set to close as part of an overall scaling back of investment in Japanese studios by NetEase and Tencent.

Both Chinese companies have invested heavily in Japanese game development in recent years, acquiring numerous development studios and opening new ones.

Now, however, a Bloomberg report claims both companies are starting to rethink their strategy because it’s yet to bear any significant fruit.

According to the report, NetEase has “cut all but a handful of jobs” at Shibuya-based Ouka, whose Visions of Mana was only just released on Thursday.

The company reportedly plans to close the studio, with the remaining staff overseeing the release of its final games first.

While neither NetEase or Tencent show any signs of wanting to completely pull out of Japan, the report claims that both companies are starting to rethink their strategy in the country, which saw them making large investments in an attempt to build a catalogue of big-budget AAA games.

NetEase’s remaining studios in Japan include Grasshopper Manufacture (led by Suda51), Nagoshi Studio (led by Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi), Pincool (led by Dragon Quest 8 and 9 producer Ryutaro Ichimura), Studio Flare (led by BlazBlue series producer Toshimichi Mori) and GPTRACK50 (led by Resident Evil 4 producer Hiroyuki Kobayashi).

“We may be approaching a point where Tencent and NetEase begin to scrutinise their returns more closely,” Bernstein analyst Robin Zhu told Bloomberg.

“Globally, the video gaming industry has retrenched post-COVID, and many large publishers have reduced headcount or scaled back investments. Anecdotally, the Japanese developers’ desire to tightly control what can be done with their IP has sometimes been a source of friction.”

Both NetEase and Tencent also have investments in developers outside of Japan, with NetEase in partcular recently launching numerous new studios in the US.

In April, Tencent significantly increased its shareholding in Remedy Entertainment, increassing its ownership of the Alan Wake studio to almost 15%.