Visions of Mana developer Ouka Studios reportedly set to close after major layoffs
Ouka Studios, the developer of the recently released Visions of Mana, is reportedly planning to close after NetEase and Tencent reduced their investments in the Japanese gaming industry, resulting in significant job cuts.
The details:
As reported by Bloomberg, NetEase and Tencent, two of China's largest gaming companies, are reducing their investment in Japanese studios. It is believed that the decision was made after the two publishers set out to build large catalogs of AAA titles, but developers have yet to make a large impact as originally hoped.
NetEase has reportedly "cut all but a handful of jobs" at Ouka Studios, with Bloomberg reporter Takashi Mochizuki stating that the cuts began in spring 2024. Despite Visions of Mana only arriving this week, there are reports that the studio will be shut down entirely, and its remaining employees will oversee the launch of its final projects before it closes.
While there are no signs that either company intends to abandon the Japanese industry entirely, Tencent has reportedly already canceled some of its funding commitments. One of the commitments was with Bandai Namco to release a mobile version of Blue Protocol, but it was announced earlier this week that the MMORPG would be shut down next year before it even went global.
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