The Chinese company NetEase currently has its hands in so many exciting MMORPGs that its recently struggling stock has been able to rise significantly on the stock market. A new AAA studio, however, had to be closed down.
What MMORPGs are these? Similar to Tencent, NetEase has invested extremely large sums of money in Western studios and projects in recent years to gain influence and revenue opportunities outside of the Chinese home market. The financed games include:
- the new MMORPG project “Ghost” by Greg “Ghostcrawler” Street (WoW, League of Legends)
- the new MMORPG about Warhammer by Jack Emmert (City of Heroes, Neverwinter)
- the MMO project from the newly founded studio Blue Scarab Entertainment, where various genre veterans are working
- the sci-fi MMO from T-Minus Zero, the new studio of Rich Vogel (Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, SWTOR)
- the very successful Marvel Snap from Second Dinner (partially former Blizzard developers like Ben Brode)
- the highly monetized Diablo Immortal
This very portfolio of upcoming, promising MMOs and already well-running service games is, according to industry analysts from marketwatch.com, mainly responsible for the recent rise of NetEase’s stock by 13 percent after the company published its new quarterly report for the 3rd quarter of 2024 (via ir.netease.com).
The new MMO studio of Greg Street in the presentation trailer:
Solid Quarter Thanks to WoW and Hearthstone
What does the financial report reveal? NetEase looks back on turbulent months. After significantly missing its targets in the 2nd quarter of 2024, there had also been investigations against NetEase executives for fraud and corruption, leading to two stock crashes on the stock market (via massivelyop.com).
Although there was again a decrease in revenues and net profits in the 3rd quarter compared to the previous year, the figures are solid compared to the previous report, primarily due to the following factors:
- World of Warcraft and Hearthstone made their comeback on the Chinese market after a long absence, leading to significantly higher player numbers compared to the time before the exit of WoW and Co. in China.
- Mobile games like Naraka: Bladepoint, Racing Master, and Justice Mobile delivered strong releases in some countries.
What about the closed studio? One of the projects financed by NetEase was also the new AAA game from Worlds Untold, which was founded a year ago by former Mass Effect lead Mac Walters.
On linkedin.com, the very Mac Walters has now stated that all activities at Worlds Untold must be paused until a new partner is found to help implement the current project. At the same time, however, they are currently looking for new jobs for all employees, indicating that there may not be much hope for the studio’s continued existence.
Since NetEase was the previous partner providing the funding, it seems certain that the Chinese company has pulled out of this collaboration. Reasons for the separation are not yet known. By the way, the Destiny developers from NetEase have also been well compensated: Bungie received 100 million dollars for a new game – Now it is known for which one
