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NetEase picks up minority stake in Quantic Dream

Chinese company NetEase is expanding its portfolio by picking up a minority stake in Quantic Dream, the studio behind such hits as Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human.

Ozzie Mejia

January 29, 2019 6:00 AM

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Developer Quantic Dream is largely recognized for their PlayStation-exclusive lineup of games. That includes Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and last year's Detroit: Become Human. While the studio's next move is unknown, it's picking up a big push with the announcement of a deal with Chinese internet company NetEase, Inc.

On Tuesday, NetEase announced that it had acquired a minority stake in Quantic Dream and will help fund development and distribution of the studio's future slate of games. Some may recognize NetEase as the name behind a handful of online mobile games. They're also the force behind a lot of Blizzard Entertainment's library releasing in China and are currently working on Diablo Immortal.

"The landscape of the gaming industry will go through major evolutions in the coming years, with new hardware to come, new business models to explore and new ways of playing to invent," Quantic Dream CEO/Creative Director David Cage said via press release. "We want Quantic Dream to take a key role in this exciting future and having NetEase by our side as a strategic partner will allow us to expand our creative vision and develop the company to its fullest potential. NetEase understands what Quantic is about as they share our passion for high quality games and our ambitions for the studio."

With NetEase only owning a minority stake in the company, Quantic Dream will continue to operate independently. That means that its relationship with Sony and the PlayStation department is most likely unchanged. But NetEase's presence now opens the door to a potential Quantic Dream game on mobile devices. Given David Cage's affinity for storytelling within the realm of video games, a Quantic Dream-style narrative-based game on mobile wouldn't be out of the question. And speaking editorially, the idea doesn't sound half bad.

Specific financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Ozzie Mejia

Senior Editor

Ozzie has been playing video games since picking up his first NES controller at age 5. He has been into games ever since, only briefly stepping away during his college years. But he was pulled back in after spending years in QA circles for both THQ and Activision, mostly spending time helping to push forward the Guitar Hero series at its peak. Ozzie has become a big fan of platformers, puzzle games, shooters, and RPGs, just to name a few genres, but he’s also a huge sucker for anything with a good, compelling narrative behind it. Because what are video games if you can't enjoy a good story with a fresh Cherry Coke?