Earlier this month, Kenji Ozawa, co-director of Square Enix’s Visions of Mana and former developer at the NetEase Games-owned Ouka Studios, announced the establishment of his new game company Studio Sasanqua. In a recent interview with Chinese gaming media 3DM, Ozawa looked back on his experience working at Ouka Studios and shared some thoughts about its premature closure.
Ouka Studios was a hybrid Chinese-Japanese game company founded in 2020 by NetEase Games. It employed veteran Japanese developers scouted from big companies like Bandai Namco Entertainment, Capcom and Square Enix. It notably developed Visions of Mana, the first new mainline entry in Square Enix’s Mana series in 17 years. However, soon after the release of Ouka Studio’s first and only game in August 2024, rumors started circulating that NetEase Games was cutting jobs and planning to shut down the studio. This was confirmed indirectly later that year, when the studio’s homepage was deleted and key figures like Ryosuke Yoshida and Kenji Ozawa announced their departures.
Commenting on Ouka Studios’ closure, Ozawa comments, “Of course, I think it’s a shame, but rather than holding a grudge against NetEase, I’m thankful to them for giving me the opportunity.” He mentions that if he were working in Japan, his chances of being entrusted with developing a major console game at his age and experience level would have been slim.
According to Ozawa, game media reporting on his criticism of NetEase Games has only shown one side of the story. “I think it’s a shame that the studio was disbanded, as we needed more room for trial and error in order to prove ourselves, but on the other hand, it did leave us with very valuable experience in development.”
Ozawa also praises the work environment at Ouka Studios, commenting, “NetEase gave the development team a great deal of decision-making power, and even top management members would communicate with the staff on a regular basis. In my opinion, this kind of excellent game development environment is hard to come by in other commercial companies.” Ozawa suggests that his decision to establish his own game company was influenced by the fact that he didn’t expect to find many companies with a similar work environment.
Explaining the meaning behind “Studio Sasanqua,” the name of his new studio, Ozawa mentions that he wanted it to inherit part of Ouka Studios’ legacy. “Although Ouka Studios no longer exists, for me personally, that experience is still very beautiful and precious, so I chose to continue to use a flower as the name of the studio, hoping to make use of the technology and experience accumulated at Ouka Studios in the future.” Interestingly, ‘Ouka’ refers to cherry blossoms, while ‘Sasanqua’ is a species of camellia.
On the other hand, Ozawa also seems determined not to repeat Ouka Studios’ mistakes, as his policy for his new company is to remain self-funded as much as possible, and to create an environment where development staff won’t face layoffs due to fallout from managers’ decisions.
Related article: Exclusive: Visions of Mana’s directors talk about the high-speed, hands-on game development process that’s only possible at a hybrid studio
