Kenji Ozawa, one of the co-directors of 2024’s Visions of Mana, has revealed the launch of Studio Sasanqua. The announcement comes only months after a Bloomberg report in August revealed that Ouka Studios, the developer behind Visions of Mana, would be shuttered as part of a strategy by NetEase and Tencent to reduce investment in Japanese studios.
Ozawa began his career as a producer at Bandai Namco in Japan before transitioning to the company’s Shanghai branch. He then spent five years in China, taking on producer and director roles at NetEase Games. NetEase established Ouka Studios in 2019, where Ozawa served as co-director on a modern remake of Squaresoft’s 16-bit cult-classic, Visions of Mana.
Visions of Mana received generally positive reviews, earning a 75 on Metacritic, but it struggled commercially. Shortly after the game’s release, NetEase opted to scale back its investment in Japanese studios. This ultimately led to a mass departure of Ouka Studios staff. Ozawa officially left NetEase Games on October 31st.
In an interview with AUTOMATON, Ozawa expressed concerns over the impact of poor management decisions on creative teams. He shares that missteps at the management level often lead to creators losing their jobs. As the CEO of Studio Sasanqua, he emphasized the importance of leadership that protects and support creators. Ozawa also stated his commitment to taking full responsibility if a management decision leads to a project’s failure. The Visions of Mana co-lead says that his new studio will start off with smaller Unreal Engine projects with plans to move on to larger projects.
Ryosuke Yoshida, the other lead on Visions of Mana, also left Ouka Studios in late October to join Vision of Mana‘s publisher Square Enix. This may be an indication that Square Enix plans to keep the Mana series in-house. Yoshida’s has not announced his role at his new company.
Although its Japanese investments haven’t borne fruit, NetEase games has seen more success in other foreign markets. Its superhero shooter Marvel Rivals launched in December and quickly peaked at 644,000 players, surpassing Overwatch 2 and Apex Legends as the most-played hero shooter on Steam.
You can watch the announcement video for Studio Sasanqua here:
