The latest installment in the Mana series, Visions of Mana, finally released yesterday, but it's been reported that developer Ouka Studios has lost most of its staff, and is at risk of shutting down altogether.
This comes from a report from Bloomberg's Takashi Mochizuki, who claims that, according to sources familiar with the situation, Ouka Studios owner NetEase has cut most jobs at the studio, leaving only a few behind. Reportedly, these remaining few will oversee the studio's final games before it winds down for good, as NetEase apparently plans to shut Ouka's doors. It's claimed that this comes as both NetEase and Tencent are considering scaling back their investments in Japanese studios following a lack of successful games, amid a comeback for the Chinese market.
Mochizuki adds on Twitter that the situation at Ouka hasn't happened overnight, as reportedly, NetEase has been making staff cuts at the studio since at least this spring. Neither the studio nor its owner have released a public statement about this, however, with the latter telling Bloomberg that it had "nothing to announce" about the matter.
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If this is accurate, then it's a huge shock – Ouka only opened its doors in 2020, and Visions of Mana has been one of the most hyped-up action RPGs of the year. It's worth noting that critic responses to it have been somewhat mixed – in our own Visions of Mana review, we gave it two and a half stars out of five – although its average score on Metacritic is currently 'generally positive' at 76. Even so, if it's true that NetEase has been making cuts at Ouka for some time, then you wouldn't think that this reception could have anything to do with the situation at the studio.
Layoffs in the games industry have sadly been rife for some time now, with the likes of Destiny 2 developer Bungie and prominent indie game publisher Humble Games being just two of the recent workforces affected.
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