The latest chapter in the seemingly unending list of gaming industry acquisitions is marked by NetEase Games, which announces today the acquisition of French developer Quantic Dream.

　　NetEase had already partnered with Quantic Dream a few years ago, as you might recall, and rumors of the full-fledged acquisition began swirling in late March.

　　For its part, the French studio published a blog post dedicated to the big news. We've picked some highlights below.

　　In order to continue our development and presence in the world, but also to fund other studios and become an international publisher, larger investments are needed for us to keep building our technology and infrastructure, to deliver ever more impressive next-generation games, to expand our team and to develop several projects simultaneously.   

　　We met NetEase about 4 years ago and offered them to join us as a minority shareholder in January 2019. During this time, we have learned a lot about each other. We started working together on small and large projects, we enjoyed working together and discussed a lot about our sector and our vision for the future. We discovered that we share the same desire to create bold, highly qualitative work that makes an impression.     

　　To continue to evolve and dream big, as we embark on “our next 25 years”, we are delighted to announce that we will be joining NeEase Games, which is becoming a 100% shareholder of Quantic Dream. We will retain our independence in terms of our editorial line, the artistic direction of our projects and the management of the studio. Our teams, who are fully involved in this operation and who benefit directly financially, are of course fully preserved and will continue to grow and strengthen. NetEase Games is committed to supporting the innovation and development of video games worldwide, and it is within this framework that Quantic Dream will continue to grow. We will still operate independently, maintain the ability to create and self-publish our video games on all platforms, and continue to support and publish titles developed by third parties.  

　　Quantic Dream, known for its movie-like adventure games (Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, Detroit: Become Human), is currently working on Star Wars: Eclipse. The studio is also publishing Parallel Studio's narrative adventure game Under The Waves.

　　For its part, NetEase has steadily increased its investments in triple-A game making, between the $100 million invested in Bungie, the strategic investment in Behaviour Interactive, and the opening of new studios such as Nagoshi's and the Seattle-based Jar of Sparks, not to mention the acquisition of Suda's Grasshopper Manufacture. NetEase is also set to publish Everstone Studio's Where Winds Meet, which made an impressive showing at Gamescom 2022.