Chinese tech giant NetEase, second only to Tencent in the country’s games industry, is expanding with the opening of a new studio in the US. Jackalope Games will be based out of Austin, Texas and have “creative freedom and funding to create incredible new games” according to the press release.
The studio is led by Jack Emmert, a 22 year industry veteran. He spent 15 years and change at Cryptic Studios working on their various MMOs – Neverwinter, Star Trek Online, and many others. Over the course of that time he went from designer to CEO, taking part in every part of the business along the way and eventually being the person that helped move the company to full free-to-play and negotiating sale from Atari to Perfect World.
