Latest Greg Street Interview Talks Creative Freedom Under NetEase, Connecting Shards, And More

mmorpg.com:

Greg Street, the studio head at the newly announced Fantastic Pixel Castle, sat down for an hour-long discussion with Twitch streamer Kanon_XO to talk about the upcoming MMO his team is working on. The discussion was wide-ranging, hitting on creative freedom under NetEase, monetization, and more.

Street, who until recently was working on the Riot MMO as its executive producer, left the company earlier this year to attend to personal matters. However, after a bit of rest and getting affairs in order, Street started to look towards what was next. Some speculation has been that he left Riot in order to start Fantastic Pixel Castle, which, in the interview, Greg disputes, saying that NetEase's offer to start his own studio was simply one of many coming his way after he left Riot. NetEase's just happened to be the most attractive.

Kanon_XO (who we interviewed recently as part of our article on Black Desert Online's community initiatives back at TwitchCon) has actually interviewed Street once before during his days at Riot. However, that conversation was massively edited thanks to the corporate overlords dictating what could and could not be public then.

This time, though, Street and Kanon's conversation was unfiltered and unedited — an hour-long livestream where Street touched on many topics. One of the major drum beats Street has mentioned at every step is just how much creative freedom the team has under NetEase. Talking with Kanon, he made a point to explain that NetEase is fully funding the studio, and has even given assurances that if the first game doesn't exactly do well, it's not the end of the relationship.

When answering a question about whether there is a minimum NetEase is expecting or a deadline from the parent