NetEase Games has acquired Quantic Dream, making it the Chinese company’s first European games studio.
William Ding, CEO and director of NetEase, says in a statement that “by combining the wild creativity and exceptional narrative focus of Quantic Dream with NetEase’s powerful facilities, resources, and execution capabilities, we believe there are infinite possibilities that could redefine the interactive entertainment experience we provide for players worldwide.”
“NetEase Games values our creative freedom and the drive and passion of our uniquely diverse team. We will now be able to accelerate the vision we share as a group of creating landmark titles that touch people on an emotional level,” adds Quantic Dream founder David Cage.
Quantic Dream head of publishing Guillaume de Fondaumière said: “NetEase Games’ acquisition comes as a natural evolution in this process and creates a unique opportunity to boost Quantic Dream’s growth by giving our production and publishing teams all the necessary means to excel.”
NetEase has been increasing its presence in the video games industry recently. Last year, it acquired No More Heroes developer Grasshopper Manufacture. NetEase also established a new game studio made up of former Yakuza and SEGA developers that’s led by Toshiro Nahoshi and Daisuke Sato.
Quantic Dream has been mired in some controversy, including allegations of sexism and workplace harassment. The studio’s next project, Star Wars Eclipse, has been reportedly delayed to as late as 2027 or 2028 due to difficulties filling job positions in its Paris office. Fondaumière tells GamesIndustry.biz that allegations had “no impact on discussions” when it came to the acquisition.
Quantic Dream recently revealed a new game at Gamescom titled Under the Waves in collaboration with developer Parallel Studio.
For years, Call of Duty’s campaign mode has used big, scripted set pieces to tell the overarching story amid all the adrenaline-pumping action. The 2023 Modern Warfare 3 tried to shake up the established formula by introducing a handful of short open combat missions, and I genuinely liked the idea, but the game's overall negative reception seeped into how those missions were received.
I feared the next iteration might abandon the idea because of the backlash, but I am glad it didn't. MW4’s “Stranded” mission uses the same approach, but instead of fragmenting it across the campaign, it puts it all in a single large-scale open-world mission.
Acer’s Predator Atlas 8 finally has a US release date and price, several months after the company first showed off the handheld in May. The highlight is the Intel Arc G3 Extreme chip inside, which has been adopted by only a couple of other consoles besides the Atlas 8. This version will go on sale exclusively at Best Buy on November 1 for $1,299.99.
Acer originally said the Atlas 8 would arrive in North America in October, but left pricing open at the time. The launch came amid the ongoing DRAM crunch, which has made memory more expensive across the PC industry and complicated pricing for hardware makers.
Gaming laptops and I have a complicated relationship. One of my first gaming rigs was an Acer Predator that was already outdated when I bought it. I was a broke college kid, and that was the best I could afford. So trying out high-end gaming laptops is always fun. But ASUS' ROG Zephyrus G14 is a lot more than a laptop that can run AAA games. It is portable, so you're not lugging around a 2.5kg machine everywhere you go. It is built well, none of that plastic chassis, and can even function as a normal laptop outside of just gaming.