Yet another NetEase studio has closed, this time Watch Dogs devs’ Bad Brain
NetEase’s Bad Brain Studios is closing on the same day as another developer
A third NetEase studio, in a matter of weeks, has announced it’s due to close its doors after its funding was allegedly pulled by the publisher.
Toronto-based Bad Brain Game Studios, a developer formed in 2023 by former Ubisoft and Watch Dogs: Legion developers, announced on Wednesday that it’s due to shut down due to being unable to find a new publisher.
The studio posted a brief video of its in-development game, ‘Midnight Riders’, and called on any interested investors or publishers to reach out to potentially save the project.
“It’s with a heavy heart that we share that Bad Brain Game Studios will be closing its doors. Our last official day of operation will be on November 17th,” wrote studio head and former Watch Dogs: Legion producer, Sean Crooks. “Despite our continuing efforts to seek a new partner for the project, a path forward has yet to materialize.
“We are deeply grateful to NetEase Games for their support and for giving us runway to explore every possible opportunity. Our team poured everything into this journey — pushing creative and technical boundaries every day with passion, imagination, and craft. What we achieved together stands as lasting proof of this team’s extraordinary talent.”
The message continues: “The enthusiastic response our project has received is a direct reflection of that creativity and dedication. While the outcome may not be what we had hoped for, I’ve seen firsthand that we succeeded in reaching players and peers who believed in what we were building. To those who supported the game, shared encouragement, and championed our vision — thank you.”
Crooks concluded by announcing that the Midnight Riders game and its IP are available for acquisition or partnership. “We believe strongly in what was created, and would love to see this world find its way to players.”
Notably, Bad Brain is set to close on the exact same day as another NetEase studio, World of Warcraft designer Greg Street’s Fantastic Pixel Castle, potentially suggesting that some form of deadline has been reached.
Earlier this week, Fantastic Pixel Castle announced it will also close its doors on November 17, citing a lack of funding. A month earlier, MMO veterans at T-Minus Zero announced they’d been forced to close, though a small group eventually rescued the studio name.
Earlier this year, Game File sources claimed NetEase was significantly scaling back its operations and actively shopping around its non-Chinese studios – a claim the company denied at the time.
In addition to the initial closure of T-Minus, FPC, and Bad Brain, NetEase split from Vancouver-based Worlds Untold, the studio it founded with Mass Effect writer Mac Walters in 2023, as well as Seattle-based Jar of Sparks, the studio founded in 2022 by Xbox veteran Jerry Hook. Ouka Studio, the Tokyo-based developer behind Square Enix’s Visions of Mana, was also closed last year.
VGC has reached out to NetEase for comment on this story and will update it when we receive a response.
