The video game acquisitions continue: this time it’s French developer Quantic Dream, which has been bought by Chinese game company NetEase.
NetEase, which publishes Blizzard’s mobile game Diablo Immortal, said it had acquired the studio behind Detroit: Become Human, Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls without disclosing a fee. NetEase originally acquired a minority stake in Quantic Dream in 2019.
Quantic Dream, led by David Cage and Guillaume de Fondaumière, is now NetEase’s first studio in Europe. It will “continue to operate independently, focusing on creating and publishing its video games on all platforms, as well as supporting and publishing third-party developed titles, while at the same time leveraging NetEase’s significant game development capabilities”, the company insisted.
Earlier this month, Cage responded to allegations of an unhealthy studio culture and inappropriate behaviour at Quantic Dream, which he previously described as a “smear campaign”.
In an interview with Edge, Cage discussed the company culture of the studio and denied a lack of humility in its response to allegations.
“I don’t think we had an aggressive attitude,” he said. “When you’re accused of things that go against everything you believe in, everything you’ve done in your life, it hurts. It went beyond just attacking the studio culture.
“Of course, like any human organisation, we are not perfect by any means,” Cage continued. “But are we the kind of studio that was described? Our employees have said repeatedly: it’s not true. Can we improve? Yes. Have we made mistakes in the past? Probably. But we had to do something about what was being said. We were so hurt by specific allegations that we know are wrong or false, that we had to defend ourselves. We wanted people to hear our voice.”