Kenji Ozawai, co-director of the game Visions of Mana developed by Ouka Studios under the NetEase umbrella (owned by Square Enix, the franchise owner and distributor), announced the establishment of his own studio named Studio Sasanqua. This decision came after Ouka Studios was shut down by NetEase in 2024 as part of their withdrawal from China.
Ozawa stated that he opened his own studio to directly take responsibility for the business outcomes, rather than shifting the blame to the development team. He mentioned experiencing similar situations multiple times in the game development industry, where management approves a project, funds it, but if it fails, the development team faces the consequences while management remains untouched. By establishing his studio, Ozawa prepared himself to bear the responsibility both as part of the management and the development team.
It is not yet clear what the first game from Studio Sasanqua will be, but Ozawa mentioned it will start as a small game built on the Unreal Engine before expanding to larger PC and console games in the future.
Another co-director of Visions of Mana, Ryosuke Yoshida, announced at the end of 2024 that he would join Square Enix. Prior to his time at Ouka Studios, Yoshida had worked with major companies like Capcom.
TLDR: Kenji Ozawa and Ryosuke Yoshida, co-directors of Visions of Mana, took different paths following the shutdown of Ouka Studios, with Ozawa establishing Studio Sasanqua and Yoshida joining Square Enix.
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