News
Visions of Mana Co-Director Kenji Ozawa Launches New Game Studio
posted on by Rafael Antonio Pineda
Game developer Kenji Ozawa, a former member of NetEase's Ouka Studios and a co-director on the Visions of Mana game, announced on Monday that he has founded Studio Sasanqua for game development and marketing.
The company aims to develop and market games for both PC and console platforms, as well as produce or cooperate on development on games for other companies' IP. The studio already has an as-yet unannounced game in development.
Ozawa joined Bandai Namco Entertainment in 2015, working on IP such as Mobile Suit Gundam and Dragon Ball and specializing in mobile games for the Chinese market. He was a co-director alongside Ryosuke Yoshida on Visions of Mana. On the same day of the game's release, Bloomberg reported in August that Chinese game development company NetEase has laid off most of the staff at Ouka Studios in Tokyo with intentions to shut down the studio's offices in Shibuya. Yoshida left NetEase in December, following NetEase's closure of Ouka Studios.
Sources: Studio Sasanqua website, Kenji Ozawa's X/Twitter account, 4Gamer (やわらぎ)
Disclosure: Bandai Namco Filmworks Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Bandai Namco Holdings Inc., is a non-controlling, minority shareholder in Anime News Network Inc.
