NetEase closes Fantastic Pixel Castle and shuts down Greg Street's MMO Ghost.

NetEase has confirmed the closure of the Fantastic Pixel Castle, the studio founded in 2023 and led by Greg Street, known in the gaming community as Ghostcrawler. The studio was developing an ambitious fantasy MMORPG, in its early stages, codenamed Ghost. The official closure is set for November 17th.

The closure of the Fantastic Pixel Castle is a critical point that raises concerns about NetEase's strategy outside of China, as it is part of a broad restructuring that also affected other studios, such as Worlds Untold, Jar of Sparks, and Ouka Studio.

Greg Street, a veteran of World of Warcraft (Blizzard) and League of Legends (Riot Games), had revealed just a few weeks earlier that the studio's time under NetEase's leadership was coming to an end. At the time, he was looking for new investors to keep the Ghost project alive.

The director mentioned that there was still a "small chance" of securing funding after the closure. However, he acknowledged the difficulties in attracting support for a large-scale MMO in the current times.

The closure of the Fantastic Pixel Castle by NetEase marks the end of Greg Street's (Ghostcrawler's) Ghost MMORPG (in its early stages). The official closure is on November 17th. The move is part of a bigger restructuring that affected studios like Worlds Untold, Jar of Sparks, and Ouka Studio. Street, a former employee of Blizzard and Riot Games, was seeking new investors for the project.