NetEase cuts Spliced studio jobs, extending its Western AAA retreat to five closures
Summary
NetEase-owned Spliced Inc is undergoing redundancies at its remote-first AAA studio.
Multiple employees confirmed roles are at risk as of February 2026.
Spliced was founded in 2023 with senior talent from GTA, Call of Duty, and Red Dead Redemption.
The studio never publicly announced or shipped a single project.
Spliced is NetEase's fifth Western studio closure or divestiture since 2024.
"Wild that a AAA studio has died without showing anything"
01
Spliced operated three years without revealing a project
Founded by NetEase in 2023 as a remote-first, anti-crunch Western AAA studio.
Team included senior developers from Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty, The Sims, and Rocket League.
No project was publicly announced or shown in three years of operation.
LinkedIn posts confirm a formal redundancy process is underway.
At least one employee has confirmed they have already been laid off.
02
Five Western studios closed or divested since NetEase pledged overseas support
T-Minus Zero, Bad Brain Game Studios, and Fantastic Pixel Castle were all shut down in 2024.
NetEase sold its Mattel163 stake back to Mattel and dissolved in-house studio Anchor Point.
Every closure has targeted Western or overseas teams, not Chinese operations.
These cuts followed NetEase's public commitment to overseas operations.
NetEase acknowledged "structural changes" would be necessary - then executed them entirely westward.
03
Spliced is now a named precedent for pandemic-era Western AAA unwind
The investment thesis - remote-first, senior Western talent, AAA scope - produced zero shipped product.
Three years of capital deployed with no public output is a diligence red flag for similar structures.
NetEase's repeated write-downs across this studio cohort suggest structural model risk.
Publishers and investors evaluating remote-first Western AAA studios have a concrete failure case.
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