After 25 years as an independent developer, the legendary French studio Quantic Dream, based in Montreal since February 2021, has been acquired by the Chinese giant NetEase Games.
Posted at 11:14 a.m.
NetEase had already been a minority shareholder in Quantic Dream since January 2019. For an amount that has not been disclosed, it acquired 100% of the shares of the studio founded by its current creative director, David Cage. On its website, the French studio explains that it accepted the offer in order to have investments “to continue [son] development and [sa] presence in the world, but also to finance other studios and become an international publisher. His first adventure outside France was the opening of a studio of about fifty employees in Montreal, avenue Atwater, directed by the Montreal veteran of the industry Stéphane D’Astous, a former director of Ubisoft Montreal who founded and led Eidos-Montréal for seven years. Mr. D’Astous left Quantic Dream last January.
Independence and growth
Quantic Dream has stood out for 25 years with its narrative frameworks. The studio has released five games since its debut that have won over 250 awards. He signed an exclusive contract with Sony from 2010, reserving his works for the PlayStation. The three games that followed, Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Humanare considered jewels of storytelling, with moving scenarios and a depth rarely equaled in video games.
The studio’s biggest hit, Detroit: Become Human launched in 2018 and which has sold more than five million copies, is for example based on a 4000-page script which required the recruitment of 300 actors and 360 days of filming, revealed Cage in an interview in 2019. The predominance of script over game mechanics has sometimes earned his games the ironic label of “interactive cinema”.
“Quantic Dream has always been particularly attached to its freedom of creation and its independence, can we read on the studio’s website. This freedom allowed us to create different games, to develop our proprietary technology, to equip ourselves with an infrastructure dedicated to our needs, and above all to create the games we dreamed of for millions of players. »
Quantic Dream is currently working on an adaptation of the Star Wars universe, star wars eclipsein collaboration with LucasFilm.
Second Montreal studio
On its website, the French studio also ensures that it will continue its growth in the bosom of NetEase. “We maintain our independence on our editorial line, the artistic direction of the projects and the management of the studio, can we read. Our teams, who are fully associated with this operation and who benefit directly financially from it, are of course fully preserved and will continue to grow and strengthen. »
With the acquisition of Quantic Dream, NetEase inherits a second studio in Montreal. The largest video game publisher and developer in China announced the creation of a studio in the Quebec metropolis in July 2019.