BossKey 37 - Gaming Investment throttle down

NetEase layoff Marvel Rivals Western team Microsoft looking for the AI Muse and Meta Horizon is a thing for creators?

Author

Weiqing CG BOSS
February 26, 2025

Hello in this BossKey Update,

The theme feels like gaming investment are slow going down, with NetEase restructuring. Meta launches $50 million Creator Fund as it shifts focus to mobile content and Microsoft creates its AI Muse for game dev research.

3 Interesting Things

🎮Game news: NetEase layoffs Marvel Rivals Western Teams

📱 Social Post: Microsoft Creates an AI MUSE for Game Development

🔎Interesting Finds: Meta launches $50 million Creator Fund for Horizon Platform

🎮Game News: NetEase layoffs Marvel Rivals Western Teams

China Cutting Back Investments in Gaming studios Overseas?

Lazy Slow and Woke. NetEase is shaking up the things in its company and investments.

Just like deepseek and black myth WuKong success. It seeks profits by making things cheaper on production side. Here in SG TikTok had some small layoffs With geo-political tensions I feel the Chinese firms Amare retreating back to their homeland and probably investing locally. With 996 Working culture over there bosses love it and have maximum output.

The word on social is the CEO is calling the overseas devs Lazy Entitled and Woke.

Some of the Japanese studios are also caught in this situation like ex Yakuza Dev and Suda51

List of affected studios

NetEase Games Overseas Studios

  • Anchor Point Studios (Spain)

  • Bad Brain Game Studios (Canada)

  • BulletFarm (California, U.S.)

  • Fantastic Pixel Castle (U.S.)

  • GPTRACK50 Studios (Japan)

  • Grasshopper Manufacture (Japan)

  • Jackalyptic (Texas, U.S.)

  • Jar of Sparks (Washington, U.S.)

    • Paused operations in January 2025

  • Liquid Swords (Sweden)

    • Partially owned by NetEase

    • Underwent layoffs in February 2025

  • Nagoshi Studio (Japan)

    • Reportedly lost its marketing budget recently

  • NetEase Games Montreal (Canada)

  • NetEase Games North America (California, U.S.)

  • NetEase Games Korea (South Korea)

  • NetEase Games Tokyo (Japan)

  • PinCool (Japan)

  • Quantic Dream (France)

  • Rebel Wolves (Poland)

    • Partially owned by NetEase

  • Skybox Labs (Canada)

  • Spliced (UK)

  • Studio Flare (Japan)

  • T-Minus Zero Entertainment (Texas, U.S.)

  • Worlds Untold (Canada)

    • Paused operations in November 2024

Links

After 'Marvel Rivals' Layoffs, NetEase Rumored To Pull Funding From Other Western Developers Because They Are "Lazy, Entitled, Slow And Woke"

A new rumor alleges that NetEase might pull funding from other western studios in the wake of it laying off Marvel Rivals developers at its Seattle studio.Fandom Pulse is a reader-supported publication.

fandompulse.substack.com/p/after-marvel-rivals-layoffs-netease?utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true

NetEase raises fears it is unloading its overseas game properties, hurting U.S. gaming

Chinese game companies may be forced to sell off their overseas holdings in U.S. game companies. That could cause an earthquake in gaming.

venturebeat.com/games/netease-is-unloading-its-overseas-game-properties-hurting-u-s-gaming

📱 Social Post: Microsoft wants an AI MUSE

Game Idea Generation got more interesting

Microsoft MUSE AI for Game Ideation 

Microsoft has introduced MUSE, a world and human action model for game development. Powered by AI, MUSE can generate game visuals and controller actions to expedite the game creation process. Built in collaboration with Ninja Theory (Not Confirmed), the system aims to streamline ideation by producing assets and mechanics automatically. While the potential is exciting, it bears resemblance to Google’s GameNGen, raising questions about its practical applications in real game development workflows.

Could MUSE revolutionize ideation, or does it risk overcomplicating an already creative process? Time will tell. For more details, read and watch below.

Links

Advancing game ideation with Muse: the first World and Human Action Model (WHAM)

Today Nature published Microsoft’s research detailing our WHAM, an AI model that generates video game visuals & controller actions. We are releasing the model weights, sample data, & WHAM Demonstrator on Azure AI Foundry, enabling researchers to build on the work.

www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/blog/introducing-muse-our-first-generative-ai-model-designed-for-gameplay-ideation

Microsoft MUSE - AI "Ideation" Game Engine – GameFromScratch.com

Microsoft Research have just released Microsoft MUSE, a generative AI model designed for gameplay ideation.

gamefromscratch.com/microsoft-muse-ai-ideation-game-engine

🔎Interesting Finds: Meta launches $50 million Creator Fund as it shifts focus to mobile content 

VR Content for Mobile? Meta Horizons still a thing?

Meta has launched a $50 million Creator Fund for developers building games for its online virtual space Horizon Worlds. This sounds similar to Unreal Editor for Fornite Creators where you build in the Game World Fortnite.

Might give it a try if I have time inbetween my game project.

But over on Reddit some users of VR think this project might not take off We shall see.

Meta said it will make payouts each month to devs based on factors like engagement, retention, and in-world purchases. 

As part of this initiative, Meta is also introducing its first creator competition of the year. The first will be a $1m mobile-focused contest, which is set to start on Tuesday, March 11th.

Links:

Meta launches $50 million Creator Fund as it shifts focus to mobile content 

Meta has launched a $50 million Creator Fund for developers building games for its online virtual space Horizon Worlds.

www.pocketgamer.biz/meta-launches-50-million-creator-fund-as-it-shifts-focus-to-mobile-content


That’s all for this week. Hit the subscribe button if you enjoyed it 🤝

follow us on Twitter X and BlueSky and Beacons Links 📱

You can also follow my personal Twitter account , BlueSky and Beacons links 🤙

Reply

or to participate.