Following their split from NetEase, Fantastic Pixel Castle was unable to secure a new publisher or investors. Meanwhile, T-Minus Zero Entertainment is staging a comeback.
Following their split with publisher NetEase and an unsuccessful search for a new publisher, Fantastic Pixel Castle has announced that it will be closing its doors (for now). Three weeks ago, the studio confirmed that it was no longer a first-party NetEase Games studio and was seeking a new publisher for its MMORPG, codenamed 'Ghost'. On social media, Studio Head and Game Director Greg Street wrote: "Fantastic Pixel Castle will close its doors on Nov 17. While there is still a chance we can secure funding after that date, it will depend on how much of the team remains. While we'd love to make our game, our first priority is to help our developers find employment, whether that's at indie studio Fantastic Pixel Castle 2.0, or at many of the other fine (and hopefully stable) game and tech companies out there."
At the end of August, NetEase shut down T-Minus Zero Entertainment, the game studio founded by Rich Vogel in 2023. Now, a small group of veteran directors and founders have acquired the T-Minus Zero Entertainment name in order to carry the team's spirit forward, and they are relaunching as an independent production company, "with a refined development model and a funding approach inspired by the independent film world: focused, project-based, and partnership-friendly."
NetEase split from Worlds Untold in January 2025, and Ouka Studio closed last year.
