Quantic Dream Intends To Become A Multiplatform Developer And “Boutique Publisher”

Quantic Dream has never been a first-party studio, despite its deep association with the PlayStation brand ever since the release of Heavy Rain in 2010. With recent PC ports for the aforementioned title, plus Beyond: Two Souls and the upcoming release of Detroit: Become Human, the French developer is looking to break away from Sony’s platform to develop and publish games for other systems.

Earlier this year, NetEase Games, the gaming division of Chinese internet giant NetEase, acquired a minority stake in Quantic Dream–hot on the heels of investing $100 million into Bungie to create non-Destiny games. While David Cage and Guillaume de Foundaumiere maintain control of the studio, the money invested by NetEase will go to “support the studio’s vision of becoming a global, multi-franchise entertainment company, and to develop advanced technologies and games for the future.”

The fruits of this labour have already been seen with the PC ports for Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls arriving on the Epic Games Store, with Detroit: Become Human releasing later this year. Now, in a recent interview with DualShockers, studio head David Cage has detailed the company’s intentions to break away from PlayStation exclusivity to “work on different platforms and reach players all around the world”.

“After having worked exclusively with PlayStation for 12 years, we thought it was the right time for us to put our money where our mouth is,” Cage revealed. “We also felt that the landscape would change in the coming years, with the emergence of new platforms, 5G and Cloud Play.”

Not content to simply release its own games on other platforms, Cage also shared Quantic Dreams’ aspirations to become a “boutique publisher” over the next few years, working as an independent publisher by “backing few titles and championing originality and high quality, while providing tech and industrial support.” This came to fruition through the studio’s investment from NetEase, with Cage explaining that the Chinese giant “understood the ambition we had for the studio. We felt there were some very interesting strategic synergies between our companies.”

As for the transition into becoming a publisher, Cage goes on to say that Quantic Dream “felt there was room for a new publisher that would have an ‘ethical’ approach, offering fair deals and not taking ownership of IP.” So far the studio is “really pleased with the result” of its work on the PC ports for Epic Games Store. As the company’s first foray into publishing, Cage revealed that he’s “very pleased with Heavy Rain’s current figures, which align with our expectations.”

With new platforms like Xbox Scarlett, PlayStation 5, and Google Stadia on the horizon, Cage has made it clear that Quantic Dream is not “exclusive to any platform anymore. So yes, unless there are some specific exclusivity deals on a title-by-title basis, all our games will be released on all platforms at launch.”

from GameSpot – Game News https://www.gamespot.com/articles/quantic-dream-intends-to-become-a-multiplatform-de/1100-6469048/