Today NetEase announced with a press release the establishment of “Ouka Studio” based across Guangzhou, China, and Tokyo, Japan.
While NetEase is known mostly for mobile and PC games, based on its “releasing excellent games all over the world to see the customers’ happy faces” mission, they have decided to take things one step further to producer its highest-quality ever games for next-generation home consoles.
Ouka Studio (Ouka means “Cherry Blossom”) involves a director (or directors, as usual Japanese doesn’t distinguish between plural and singular) with extensive experience in creating home console games in Japan.
The studio will also benefit from Netease’s know-how and technology in developing large-scale smartphone and PC games as well as its experience with the perks of Japanese development.
The studio will be staffed by developers at Netease proficient with next-gen game development and is also hiring for its studio based in Shibuya, Tokyo. The aim is to create “high-quality” games and a new future together with Japanese gamers.
The official site of the studio is already up and spells the philosophy of the new studio further, with the aim to be a place where creators who love games can pitch their ideas for new titles and work on making something that the users can really enjoy. To that end, developers are encouraged to prove their individual creativity and curiosity.
The studio will also adopt a flexible work style allowing creators to achieve a good balance between work and life. This includes work from home and flexible work hours.
We also get to see what appear to be concept art and a 3D model for a new game, even if we don’t know anything specific about it. You can find the gallery below.
If you’re unfamiliar with Netease, it’s known for many successful mobile and PC games in China like the Westward Journey series, Kai-Ri-Sei Million Arthur, and it’s currently working on Diablo Immortal for Blizzard.
