Former NetEase Executive’s Investment Group Fuels New Star Wars Game: A Shift in Gaming Funding

Arcanaut Studios and the Return to the Old Republic

At The Game Awards 2025, one of the most anticipated surprises was the reveal of Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic, a direct successor to the beloved Knights of the Old Republic series. The project is led by original KotOR director Casey Hudson, who has assembled a team of veteran BioWare developers under the banner of Arcanaut Studios. Now, a year after that announcement, we finally know how this ambitious undertaking is being financed.

Funding Behind the Revival

According to a report from Bloomberg, Fate of the Old Republic is backed by investments from GreaterThan Group, a new holding company founded by Simon Zhu, formerly the president of global investments and partnerships at NetEase. Zhu’s departure from the Chinese tech giant in 2025 came after a dramatic pullback in gaming investments by NetEase, which resulted in numerous canceled projects and studio closures—including Casey Hudson’s previous studio, Humanoid Origin, which lost NetEase funding and shut down.

Simon Zhu’s GreaterThan Group: A New Approach

Simon Zhu spent 13 years at NetEase negotiating high-profile funding deals with companies like Devolver, Marvel Snap developer Second Dinner, and the Chinese release of Sky: Children of the Light. But as “big tech walked away” from gaming to chase the AI boom, Zhu saw an opportunity. GreaterThan Group’s investors—described as “very successful individuals—gaming and tech entrepreneurs”—aim to tap into a glut of undervalued game developers left stranded by industry turmoil.

Learning from Industry Turmoil

Zhu’s philosophy is refreshingly idealistic: “You can have player satisfaction. You can have commercial success. You can have the achievement of art. You don’t need to compromise or sacrifice one thing for the other.” He adds, “Let’s give the best creator the opportunity to work on a dream project. Everyone wins.” In an industry that “treats developers so badly,” Zhu sees GreaterThan as a “rebalancing force.” The $100 million raised is already being deployed to support not only Arcanaut but also BulletFarm, a studio founded by former Call of Duty: Black Ops design director David Vonderhaar.

Beyond Star Wars: Other Investments

BulletFarm’s unannounced project is described by Vonderhaar as “if David Lynch made shooters”—a tagline that suggests the kind of creative freedom GreaterThan hopes to foster. Like Arcanaut, BulletFarm is a developer that suffered from NetEase’s funding freeze. By stepping in, GreaterThan is betting on a different model of game development, one that emphasizes artistic integrity alongside profitability.

A New Model for Game Development?

Zhu casts GreaterThan’s initial moves in a benevolent light: “It’s about making a good case that we can make good money and provide good entertainment to people in a decent and honest way.” If the group can deliver on that promise, it could serve as a powerful counterexample to the brutal realities of modern game publishing. For now, the industry watches to see whether this “rebalancing force” can turn undervalued talent into a sustainable success story.

For more on upcoming titles, check out our 2026 games preview.

What’s in Store for 2026?

With Fate of the Old Republic and other projects in development, 2026 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for studios backed by alternative investment models like GreaterThan’s. Whether this approach becomes a blueprint or a footnote remains to be seen.