Heavy Rain dev Quantic Dream will no longer make PlayStation exclusives

A major upset for the exclusive game line-up of PlayStation consoles is happening, as long-time exclusive developer Quantic Dream has announced the company’s new strategy going forward. The French gaming studio is eyeing a multiplatform future with the help of funding by Chinese gaming giant NetEase.

Variety reports in an exclusive interview with Quantic Dream that the gaming studio responsible for some of the most recognizable PlayStation exclusives is no longer planning to stay an exclusive studio. Quantic Dream is the studio behind hallmark PlayStation exclusives Detroit: Become Human, Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain.

With their unique narrative-focused games, Quantic Dreams always managed to stand tall among the vast catalog of PlayStation exclusives, with their latest game Detroit: Become Human being an excellent game all around. A pretty great feat when you consider how their games are usually narrative-driven and stray away from common gaming principles like shooting or platforming mechanics. Indeed, it’s probably that uniqueness which helped Quantic Dream garner a loyal fan base at Sony consoles over the years.

This wasn’t always like that however. The studio’s early titles were multiplatform games and only after the huge success of Heavy Rain for the PlayStation 3 did Quantic Dream focus on Sony consoles as their primary release platform. With today’s news, we come full circle as the French game developer announced their plans to return to their multiplatform roots. So, a silver lining for PlayStation players as chances of future Quantic Dream games arriving on their console of choice are looking very good.

As to why Quantic Dream is changing direction, the answer is also revealed. None other than Chinese gaming NetEase has decided to invest into the studio for future multiplatform games. While it’s nice to see a developer become able to reach even larger audiences, the involvement of NetEase might not be particularly good news for some. NetEase recently became part of the Diablo Immortal controversy and as such some pessimistic gamers are already predicting doom and gloom of Quantic Dream soon becoming just another mobile device game developer.

Of course, that’s merely speculation and going by Quantic Dream’s impressive track record of great narrative games, we’re excited to learn more about the studio’s future games.