The Chinese studio 91Act was resurrected three weeks after the dismissal of the entire staff. She was saved by the sudden success of the last game
The Chinese 91Act has an amazing fate. A month ago, the studio was ready to close its doors: its CEO Jiang Lei announced serious financial problems and fired all employees. But then the situation suddenly improved.
BlazBlue Entropy Effect
A brief chronology of events:
- On January 31, 2024, 91Act released the action "bagel" BlazBlue Entropy Effect on Steam. The game has been released from early access, which it has been in since August 2023;
- The game was not received as well as the developers expected. If during early access her rating on Steam was 95%, then on release it dropped to 70%. Players scolded BlazBlue Entropy Effect for gameplay changes and slow multiplayer;
- The management of 91Act understood that it was important to raise the rating of the game, since sales depend on it, and the future of the studio depends on it. The problems began to be solved promptly;
- Nevertheless, on February 5, the head of 91Act informed employees that due to the departure of investors and other problems, the studio had run out of money. 91Act has nothing to continue working for, so he is forced to lay off all staff. In order to pay salaries and severance pay to those who were fired, Lei even had to re-mortgage his property. Lay himself remained the only employee of the studio;
- the developers reacted to the situation with understanding. They spoke words of support to Lei and each other, some also didn't mind staying in the studio and working for free on BlazBlue Entropy Effect;
- at the same time, sales of BlazBlue Entropy Effect were growing. On the eve of the Chinese New Year, Lei told colleagues and players that the action "bagel" was bought 300 thousand times. By the end of February, sales had grown to 350,000 copies. The rating in Stream has also increased. During the holidays, it reached the 90 mark%;
A congratulatory post about the sale of 300 thousand copies. Lay no longer had an artist to draw the art, so he framed everything in the form of text
- Lay couldn't figure out what spurred the sales of BlazBlue Entropy Effect. He wondered: did the patches help, did one of the streamers notice the game, or was it something else? In part, the growth of the title's popularity was influenced by the developer himself. The audience was touched by Lay's streams, in which he discussed what was happening in the studio;
- soon, BlazBlue Entropy Effect received a license to publish in China, which was another positive sign for the game;
- On February 26, Lay called the dismissed developers back. He warned that he could not yet pay the same salary as before. Despite this, many agreed to return;
- now the developers call themselves 91Act 2.0 and hope that they will be able to finally get back on their feet.
