NetEase shutters MMO studio led by former WoW designer Greg Street

It has been announced that Fantastic Pixel Castle, the NetEase-owned studio founded by former World of Warcraft and League of Legends designer Greg Street, will shut its doors later this month, marking another casualty in NetEase's step away from international game development.

The details:

• In the announcement posted to LinkedIn, Street confirmed that the studio will shut down on November 17. According to the founder, NetEase informed the developer that it would be pulling funding in recent weeks, but despite attempts to find a new publishing partner, it has ultimately been unsuccessful. He notes that while it may find funding beyond that date, its priority is to find new roles for its staff, and that the future of Fantastic Pixel Castle depends on how much of the team remains.
• Founded in 2023 by Street after leaving Riot Games’ MMO project, the studio was developing an MMORPG codenamed Project Ghost, which emphasized multiplayer experiences and community building. The game, which was in closed playtesting, featured a unique “Red and Blue Shard” system that separated content with survival aspects and more traditional MMORPG content similar to that of WoW.
• This closure is part of Chinese publisher NetEase’s retreat from the international gaming market, with the company having also pulled funding from several more studios over the past year, including Worlds Untold, Jar of Sparks, and T-Minus Zero Entertainment. Despite denying that it was scaling back global gaming investments, it became clear that this was not the case after it made layoffs at the US-based studio behind Marvel Rivals shortly after its huge launch, handing over responsibilities to its Chinese teams.