Control lead designer joins NetEase to establish new studio Anchor Point

NetEase has opened a new studio called Anchor Point that will be led by Control lead designer Paul Ehreth.

Ethreth worked at Remedy for almost four years and was on the leadership team for both Control and Alan Wake 2. After that, he spent two years at Smilegate Barcelona working on an unannounced open-world project, and has now found a new home at NetEase.

Anchor Point will focus on building action-adventure experiences for console and PC platforms, and said its projects will look to "take risks" and should have the potential to expand into other mediums. The studio's development team includes veterans that have worked on franchises like Halo, Red Dead Redemption, The Division, and Ghost of Tsushima.

Its main base of operations will be located in Barcelona, Spain, but the studio will also have a presence in Seattle. NetEase added that Anchor Point is keen to hire across a variety of remote, hybrid, and office-based roles, and is looking to expand its team to around 100 employees.

"We're grateful to NetEase Games for giving us the creative freedom and resources to build this interconnected world that will expand beyond games and reach into other mediums as well," said Ehreth.

NetEase has bolstered its production capabilities since the turn of the year. In February, the Chinese company opened a remote-first studio called Spliced and prior to that acquired Vancouver-based studio SkyBox Labs.

In the case of Anchor Point, NetEase Games president of global investments and partnerships, Simon Zhu, said the studio will work to create "games of lasting quality" that will be played for years.