Another wave of layoffs among the Chinese NetEaswe went to the studio Fantastic pixel castleled by a gaming industry veteran Greg Street – known to fans World of Warcraft under the nickname Ghostcrawler. The studio was founded only in 2023 and worked on an ambitious fantasy MMO with the working title “Ghost” intended to be Street’s return to the roots of the genre he helped define.
After China’s decision, Fantastic Pixel Castle is trying to find a company that will finance the development and save the studio. But the situation is not optimistic. Street said on LinkedIn that their priority now is to help team members find new jobs, either at the studio’s “independent extension” or at other, more established firms. A few months ago, he seemed optimistic – in February he said that NetEase considered his project one of the key ones and planned to support it further. But this turned out to be a false hope.
The closure of Fantastic Pixel Castle fits into NetEase’s broader strategy, which downloads from projects outside of China. She graduated in recent months Untold worlds (led by former BioWare creative director Mac Walters) Jar of sparks (founded by Xbox veteran Jerry Hook) or Ouka Studio in Tokyo, who worked on Visions of Mana for Square Enix.
Greg Street was a key figure at Blizzard from 2008-2013, overseeing the systems design of World of Warcraft during its golden era. Later he worked at Riot Gameswhere he competed not only in League of Legends, but also in an unreleased MMO set in the same universe. After leaving Riot in 2023, he finally wanted to create his “dream MMO”—independent, free-to-play, and with a focus on community.
Source :Indian TV
