China's NetEase Games is once again opening new studios, this time around with Blizzard and Riot alum Greg Street (pictured) at the head.
The new venture – Fantastic Pixel Castle – is based over in Austin, Texas and is working on an MMO codenamed Ghost. Street previously spent almost six years at Blizzard working as lead systems designer for World of Warcraft. In 2013, he moved to League of Legends maker Riot as a lead games designer, rising through the ranks until he was VP And EP for the company's MMO project.
Prior to joining Blizzard, Street worked at Ensemble for nearly ten years.
"With Fantastic Pixel Castle and Ghost, we want to demonstrate our commitment to open communication and development in front of players," Street said.
"MMOs are arguably one of the most challenging genres of games to make, but we have some big advantages. We are a fully remote studio, allowing us to hire the best game developers, and we plan to stay small, so that we can iterate on our design quickly. We also want to show the game early and often to the community and make sure we are on the right track to incorporate constant feedback. This is possible because NetEase Games is a strategic partner that understands our vision, and gives us the creative autonomy, resources and support to be successful."
NetEase game's president of global investment and partnerships Simon Zhu added: “Fantastic Pixel Castle is bringing some of the best MMO talent available to NetEase Games to develop this original fantasy IP, and they will have our full support to make this vision a reality."
