Quantic Dream — the independent French developer/producer of games like Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human — is now officially a part of NetEase, Inc., making it the Chinese internet/game service provider’s first European studio. The merger was officially announced on Aug. 31 by NetEase’s CEO William Ding, who promised that his company’s acquisition of Quantic Dream will not affect the studio’s status as an independent game developer, but will instead expand their developmental manpower and help them create more polished games.

NetEase will continue to fulfil our promise to support Quantic Dream to realise its full potential. By combining the wild creativity and exceptional narrative focus of Quantic Dream with NetEase’s powerful facilities, resources and execution capabilities, we believe there are infinite possibilities that could re-define the interactive entertainment experience we provide for players worldwide.

The merger isn’t the first time NetEase games and Quantic Dream have collaborated, as according to Quantic Dream’s Co-CEO and Head of Publishing Guillaume de Fondaumière, the former company first bought a minor stake in the latter nearly three years ago.

“Over [that] period, we had the opportunity to work closely together and saw first-hand how like-minded and complementary we are,” said Fondaumière. “NetEase Games’ acquisition comes as a natural evolution in this process and creates a unique opportunity to boost Quantic Dream’s growth by giving our production and publishing teams all the necessary means to excel.”

The Paris-based studio’s CEO and writer-director David Cage spoke out about the merger as well, echoing Fondaumière’s confidence in his studio’s ability to remain independent as they work with NetEase to produce games at an increased rate and on a much grander scale.

NetEase Games values our creative freedom and the drive and passion of our uniquely diverse team. We will now be able to accelerate the vision we share as a group, of creating landmark titles that touch people on an emotional level. We have highly differentiated games in the making and I truly believe that the best is yet to come from Quantic Dream.

Of the numerous titles promised by Cage, only one is still currently known of Star Wars Eclipse, an action-adventure game set in the Star Wars universe announced at The Game Awards 2021. The game does not yet have any kind of release window, but those interested can follow the game’s official webpage for future updates as Quantic Dream and NetEase work together to expand their vision for it.