Bloomberg - Tencent and NetEase are rethinking their Japan investment as Japanese developers failed to produce hit games.

[Gizmo_Duck]

• China’s biggest game publishers are rethinking expansion plans
• ‘Wukong’ success also encouraged looking domestically for hits

Hangzhou-based NetEase recruited seasoned creators from Japanese publishers like Capcom, Bandai Namco and Square Enix Holdings Co. in 2020 when it set up the console-focused team. The studio was held up as a key operator in NetEase's push to develop more high-profile hits, helping infuse them with Japanese creative flair. Tencent, similarly, saw Japan's wealth of anime, comics and gaming content — already popular in China — as attractive territory to mine.

Among signs of Tencent's shifting market strategy, the company's longtime Japan chief, Juno Shin, has taken on more global responsibilities in recent years. He now also oversees its search for promising investments in Europe. Last week, he was named the head of its international Venture Lab, widening his remit to nurturing early-stage game developers worldwide.

All that coincided with a revival in the Chinese market after years of stagnation, spurred by incessant regulatory scrutiny.

Kinda crazy how quickly the industry changed since the height of the pandemic

 

[Neuromancer]

Man fukk Tencent.

 

[Jaguar93]

Free Platinum

 

[ORDER_66]

That money gone... Tencent got...got...

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

 

[ALonelyDad]

White western men who cosplay as Japanese online have fallen to their knees

 

[The Mad Titan]

Tango!

 

[Pull Up the Roots]

It's sad to witness what happened to the Japanese game industry.

 

[ORDER_66]

It's sad to witness what happened to the Japanese game industry.

da fukk are you talking about? the weak perish and the strong survive...

 

[Gizmo_Duck]

Tango!

Krafton is South Korean

 

[Th3G3ntleman]

It's sad to witness what happened to the Japanese game industry.

Its not just japan. Change the name from Tencent to embracer and its the same thing. These large conglomorates coming in to milk the fukk out the games industry and leave it in shambles is a shame for us all who love games.

 

[Rice N Beans]

Its not just japan. Change the name from Tencent to embracer and its the same thing. These large conglomorates coming in to milk the fukk out the games industry and leave it in shambles is a shame for us all who love games.

I do agree. However, it is also unfortunate the player base just doesn't learn sometimes. These large corpos just want IPs to milk and too many buyers will line up for the shytty product. How many people will continue to buy CoD, Madden, Battlefield, FIFA, etc no matter how trash it is just because it's the latest release?

A part of me is glad the big firms don't see the return on investment they wanted, but the other side to that is good studios getting gutted or closed which isn't great.

 

[ColdSlither]

I don’t see this just as just being because these studios failed to produce hits. I think it’s a change in the whole landscape. Look at Black Myth and Stellar Blade. There doesn’t need to be a real focus on Japanese studios.

 

[Thavoiceofthevoiceless]

I do agree. However, it is also unfortunate the player base just doesn't learn sometimes. These large corpos just want IPs to milk and too many buyers will line up for the shytty product. How many people will continue to buy CoD, Madden, Battlefield, FIFA, etc no matter how trash it is just because it's the latest release?

A part of me is glad the big firms don't see the return on investment they wanted, but the other side to that is good studios getting gutted or closed which isn't great.

 

[Mowgli]

Japan better come back home. We not buying them puzzy azz games