Written by AndrewH
You might have heard of NetEase. If you haven’t, this is the company that were able to bring World of Warcraft and Hearthstone to China. They are a big company quite simply and they are about to get a great deal larger as they have announced they have opened their first headquarters in the western world, being here in the united states, and that their initial focus will actually be on mobile platforms.
David Ting will be leading the new US headquarters and that he has lots of experience already under his belt with past positions including Chief Technology Officer at OUYA, Head of Online Publishing at Blizzard, and Gm of IGN eSports. It really is pretty interesting the initial focus of the Western NetEase headquarters will be on mobile platforms since their China offices have centered on both mobile and PC, using their big titles being those from Blizzard.
With a $15 billion USD market cap, NetEase has a strong foundation of successes in Asian markets made possible by a wealth of design and engineering talent. We’re diligently trying to bring culturalized versions of these high quality experiences to gamers around the globe. We’ve assembled several talented professionals whose passion is making games and our focus is on fostering an atmosphere with creative freedom. We are building the games we want to play and are excited to launch them into global markets. – David Ting, Gm of NetEase North America
The company has already announced what their first release will be as well. Their first release on the Western market will be an adaptation of 1 of the more productive Chinese games. At this time farmville includes a working title of Speedy Ninja, meaning name could change before the game is released. With the resources NetEase has, it is an odd decision to release this game, that is an endless runner however with a bit of a twist to it.
Speedy Ninja has a unique calligraphy art style and competitive game mechanics. There’s a leaderboard that players can compete in by doing daily quests. Players can customize their character’s? battle gear and “mystical summons” (we’re thinking this is either pets or spells) which implies that there’s lots of action within this game as well. Speedy Ninja was created by Pandada Studio meaning NetEase is going to be retaining their publisher duties by not developing any games themselves.
Right now there is no specific release date for Speedy Ninja, that it will likely be coming soon.
Developer Website: Pandada Studio
