A new report has alleged that Visions of Mana developer Ouka Studio has been hit by layoffs on the very day the game launched across the world.
According to Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki (who, in turn, cites the old chestnut "people familiar with the matter"), Ouka's owner NetEase has "cut all but a handful of jobs" at its Tokyo studio, with a view to eventually closing the company completely.
Mochizuki goes on to say that NetEase's plan is to "shut the Shibuya outfit" (i.e. the Tokyo branch), with a handful of employees remaining to oversee the rollout of Ouka's final games before it "winds down".
What makes this layoff report particularly cruel is the timing. Visions of Mana launched just yesterday, earning itself a very favorable review from our very own Brittany, so the studio behind the game suffering layoffs feels especially unfortunate in light of that.
It's worth noting that Ouka's owner NetEase hasn't officially confirmed these layoffs; in a statement given to Mochizuki and Bloomberg, NetEase said it had "nothing to announce" with regards to Ouka's closure.
Ouka's layoffs are reportedly part of a wider trend
Per the Bloomberg report, the layoffs at Ouka are part of a wider trend concerning Chinese companies pulling out of Japanese investments amidst a resurgence of the Chinese game market and a lack of success in Japan.
Mochizuki says that both NetEase and gaming giant Tencent are reconsidering investments in Japanese studios. The report gives the example of Blue Protocol, which was recently canceled in the West; Tencent was to develop and publish the mobile version of that game.
Bloomberg quotes analyst Robin Zhu as saying that while Tencent and NetEase have no intention of pulling out of partnerships with big studios like Capcom and Bandai Namco, the gaming giants are perhaps "scrutiniz[ing] their returns more closely".
Zhu says that Tencent and NetEase may be following a wider industry trend of scaling back headcounts or investments, and also that "anecdotally", Japanese studios' "desire to tightly control" their IP has been a "source of friction" between Japanese outfits and Chinese companies.
The Chinese gaming market has also opened up in recent months. GameScience's Black Myth: Wukong recently topped 10 million sales just a few days out from release, and HoYoverse games like Genshin Impact and Honkai: Star Rail have also seen success.
In recent years, NetEase has made big investments in Japanese industry legends like Dragon Quest producer Ryutaro Ichimura, former Capcom exec Hiroyuki Kobayashi, and Yakuza creator Toshihiro Nagoshi.
Whether this reported shift in the company's strategy will make a difference to these investments remains to be seen, but NetEase told Bloomberg it's always "making necessary adjustments to reflect market conditions". Stay tuned for more.
