Rebel Wolves, a studio formed by former The Witcher 3 developers, is partially owned by NetEase, a Chinese gaming conglomerate. As NetEase has been cutting a ton lately, many worried that Rebel Wolves would be affected, though that seems not to be the case.
Tomasz Tinc, one of the co-owners of Rebel Wolves, said in a Feb. 24 LinkedIn post that the studio is “facing no financial issues,” and that it is “fully funded.” He further stated that the stake NetEase has in the studio is a minority one, meaning that it cannot significantly influence how the studio functions, nor shut it down as it had with some others.
“The Blood of Dawnwalker‘s production is fully funded, and we work alongside our partners and friends from Bandai Namco, our game’s global publisher, to bring the first chapter of the Dawnwalker saga to life,” Tinc stated. He added that Rebel Wolves’ ownership is primarily held by founder and The Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz, alongside other co-owners who are employees of the studio itself.
Recently, NetEase has been moving to close, downsize, or limit its overseas studios. The company seeks to concentrate its production in China, and is slowly but surely giving up on its various West-based projects. It even went as far as to sunset the US-based support studio which actively worked on what’s arguably NetEase’s most successful title, Marvel Rivals. One of the game’s directors, who worked for the support studio, was also reportedly let go alongside the rest of the staff. The Chinese company pulled the plug on many other projects and studios, including former Halo Infinite design lead’s Jar of Sparks studio, among others.
The Blood of Dawnwalker is the upcoming RPG title developed by numerous The Witcher 3 developers, including the game’s director. It’s set in 14th century eastern Europe and is heavily inspired by mythologies and folklore of the real world, primarily vampires.
No release date has yet been announced, though a recent reveal trailer showed us quite a bit of awesome bits.
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