After Putting $100 Million Into Bungie, NetEase Buys A Stake Of Quantic Dream

NetEase Games, the gaming division of Chinese internet giant NetEase, has made another investment in a prominent game developer. After pouring $100 million into Bungie to make non-Destiny games, the company has now acquired a minority stake in David Cage's Quantic Dream. The value of the investment was not disclosed in dollar or percentage terms.

In a statement, NetEase said Quantic Dream--the French developer behind games like Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and Detroit: Become Human--will continue to operate independently. Cage, along with Quantic Dream's other boss, Guillaume de Foundaumiere, will remain in control of the studio. The money will go to "further the development and distribution of global online games."

"This strategic investment aims to support the studio's vision of becoming a global, multi-franchise entertainment company, and to develop advanced technologies and games for the future," NetEase said.

"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," Cage said in a statement. "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."

NetEase is also one of Blizzard's most notable partners. Blizzard works with NetEase on localised versions of World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and Diablo III for China. In July, NetEase invested $50 million into Improbable, and one part of the deal was that NetEase would develop games using Improbable's SpatialOS tech.

Quantic Dream's most recent game, Detroit: Become Human, was released in May 2018. The PlayStation 4-exclusive title was generally well-received and it set sales records.

While Quantic Dream, which is privately owned, has worked exclusively with Sony for its past three games, it remains to be seen if that will be true going forward.

The studio found itself at the center of controversy in 2018 when multiple French media outlets worked together to bring forward claims that Quantic Dream was a toxic place to work. Quantic Dream denied all of the allegations, which also included harassment.