NetEase has fired two or their senior managers after a police sting led to arrests of at least five of their employees.
As reported by Eurogamer, NetEase revealed in an internal memo that they have fired nine employees over bribery allegations. NetEase confirmed through their spokesperson that the police are in the process of a corruption investigation, but provided no other details.
Redditor Just-4Head-8964 shared the identities of at least five employees who were arrested in the gachagaming subreddit. They are:
- Xiang Lang, head of overseas publishing
- Jin Yu Chen, marketing director at NetEase Guangzhou
- Zhang Hixing, director of Sky: Children of Light and Knife Out
- Wu Xinxin, director of NetEase Minecraft and Onmyoji
- Kimi, director of Journey to the West Mobile
Most gamers outside China will immediately remember NetEase’s name as the publisher and developer of Marvel Rivals, but they are a considerably bigger company that than. Some gamers with longer memories will remember that they were also Blizzard’s longstanding publishing partner in China. We also reported some of the other games that they worked on, as the Chinese partner publisher, and as developer of their own games.
In terms of scale, this investigation is smaller but comparable to the legal issues currently facing Ubisoft. NetEase is trying hard to keep these allegations from sticking to the company itself, but its very indicting that the employees who were arrested are at high profile management positions.
Incredibly, Eurogamer reported that NetEase had an earlier anti-corruption investigation last September 2023. It makes it very hard for fans to defend the company. After all, regardless of where the company is or how popular its games are, if it has a bad reputation, that affects how gamers see their games and employees.
And this is hardly the first controversy we reported that casts doubt on NetEase’s reputation, but we don’t want to paint a brush that mars the entire company ourselves. In the same way that we can condemn the Guillemots for their allegations and still want the best for Ubisoft’s workers, we hope that NetEase’s developers aren’t harmed by these controversies.
Netease’s next big title coming to the West, Marvel Rivals, is scheduled to release this December 6, 2024, on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Steam, and Epic Game Store. This controversy could not have come at a worse time, as the game had built some good online sentiment and real hype. It certainly compared favorably to the game it was clearly inspired by, Overwatch 2, as well as the now cancelled potential competitor, Concord.
In spite of everything, we do wish the best for NetEase’s developers, and we hope they can bounce back from this bad press with Marvel Rivals and their other titles.
