NetEase has made no secret of its goals for expansion in the west: It managed to snurch Jack Emmert away from Daybreak to build a Warhammer 40K MMO, and its heavy funding of Ben Brode’s Marvel Snap pissed off the likes of Blizzard. And those are just two examples key to the MMO genre!
Well, now the Chinese conglom is doing it again, this time with Rich Vogel. MMO players will know him as one of the big names behind Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Meridian 59, and SWTOR, but now he’ll be running T-Minus Zero Entertainment: founded in May of this year, funded by NetEase, and stationed in Austin, Texas. The company’s first game aims to be “an ambitious, third-person online multiplayer action game set in a sci-fi universe” with a “brand-new original IP.” Soooooo… an MMO.
“T-Minus Zero Entertainment is developing an online multiplayer-focused third-person action title set in a sci-fi universe. While the main studio will be located in the technology hub of Austin, Texas, the studio has a remote-first approach with several roles open and is actively seeking game developers who are up for a challenge to build an original IP. […] T-Minus Zero Entertainment includes several industry veterans, including Game Director Mark Tucker, who brings 22 years of design experience on titles such as Fallout 76 (Design Director), Doom, and Crimson Alliance (Design Lead); Art Director Jeff Dobson, 26 years of experience on Star Wars The Old Republic, Dragon Age Inquisition, and Mass Effect Andromeda; and Anthem VP, Operations & Production Scott Malone, ten years of production experience on Fallout 76, Doom, and The Elder Scrolls Online.”
